NGT slaps ₹2 crore fine on company for changing course of a natural water channel in Odisha
NGT slaps ₹2 crore fine on company for changing course of a natural water channel in Odisha
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Bhubaneswar: Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) has been fined Rs 2 crore by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for carrying out construction on Kurdabahali Nalla in Angul district.
After hearing Alekha Chandra Tripathy's suit against JSPL and the Odisha government, as well as the respondents' responses, the NGT's eastern zone bench in Kolkata announced the order on Friday.
In its order, the Tribunal stated that the JSPL had tampered with nature by altering the natural channel of Kurdabahali Nalla, which could no longer be restored. The company is ordered to pay a penalty of Rs 2 crore because it filled up the original Nalla with earth and built its industrial complex there before receiving sanction from the Odisha Government for diversion of the Nalla through an alternate diversion into the Parang Minor Irrigation Project, the Tribunal stated in its judgement.
The Tribunal ordered that Rs 1.5 crore be deposited with the Odisha government's Forest Department and Rs 50 lakh with the Odisha State Pollution Control Board out of the total of Rs 2 crore (OSPCB).
The money will be used by the Forest Department to increase green cover along the banks of the Nalla River and in other unoccupied places. According to the Tribunal, the OSPCB would be in charge of ongoing monitoring of the water quality in the Nalla and the Parang Minor Irrigation Project.
The NGT also ordered the state government to take appropriate disciplinary action against officers who were directly or indirectly involved in the process of severe environmental legislation violations and to file an action taken report within six months.
