DECCAN INQUIRER
Weekly e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.01....Issue.32…...........30/12/2020
Will the government hold Big Polluters liable
for air pollution, preventable diseases, and untimely deaths?
16.7
lakh people died in India in 2019 because of air pollution accounting for 17·8%
of the total deaths in the country (source: The Lancet Planetary Health). Air pollution was the 4th
leading risk factor for premature death globally, accounting for nearly 12% of
all deaths, with more than 6.67 million in 2019 alone, shows the State of Global Air Report 2020. Each of these deaths could
have been averted – and every disease caused by air pollution could have been
prevented.
Air
pollution is the biggest environmental health crisis we face and the WHO has
warned repeatedly that air pollution is an invisible killer. The global death
rate attributable to air pollution exposure is 86 deaths per 100,000 people.
92% of the global population lives in places where air pollution levels are
above the WHO guideline for healthy air. As we write this article from Lucknow,
Air Quality Index here is hovering around 465 (WHO limit is 50).
Air
pollution is fuelling epidemics. Of all the deaths caused by ischemic heart
disease (biggest killer on our planet) 20% are caused by air pollution. Of all
the deaths caused by lung cancer (deadliest of all cancers) 19% are due to air
pollution. 40% of COPD deaths are because of air pollution. Asthma is another
condition people suffer from which is seriously aggravated by air pollution.
Also, let us not forget that other major common risk factors- tobacco and
alcohol use- for these diseases are also preventable. Should not our
governments hold Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol liable for the irreparable loss of
human life and suffering it has caused?
More
alarmingly, climate change and air pollution are closely interrelated, further
escalating the economic costs and health hazards for humankind. Yet it does not
seem to be invoking governments to act with urgency. Air pollution warrants
much more urgency to save lives and help people breathe life, and not inhale
deadly disease-causing polluted air.
MAKE
BIG POLLUTERS PAY
The Lancet Planetary Health published earlier this
month further states that lost output from premature deaths and morbidity
attributable to air pollution accounted for economic losses of US$ 28·8 billion
(about INR 2,13,451 crores) in India in 2019 alone. “The states of Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar, with the highest economic loss as a percentage of their GDP,
had the lowest per-capita GDP among the states of India, indicating that these
poor states are most vulnerable to the adverse economic impacts of air
pollution” states The Lancet.
With
overburdened and appallingly weak health systems in India, and with additional
challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot afford multiple epidemics
of preventable diseases. No one should suffer from any disease that is
primarily preventable. Likewise, no one should die prematurely from these
curable diseases.
The
President of India has recently signed an ordinance, ‘The Commission for Air
Quality Management in National Capital Region and adjoining areas, 2020’, with
a provision for a fine of INR 1 crore and/or jail for 5 years for those
violating air pollution norms. This ordinance has been brought in the
background of the problem of stubble burning by farmers. All this while when
industrial and vehicular pollution was deteriorating the quality of
metropolitan air no government had thought of a strict law to check it. In
fact, the history of Pollution Control Boards has been that of compromise on
the issue of pollution in exchange for gratification by the Industry. As a
proof one has to merely observe the pollution levels in the water bodies
situated next to industries or big cities.
We
conveniently and squarely blame the poor for pollution but ironically the poor
consume and pollute the least. It is us, the privileged people who consume,
abuse, and pollute our planet the most. Also, it is us, the privileged people
(who live, consume, and pollute in an unsustainable manner) who are getting to
decide the ‘sustainable development’ model. So, dumping all blame for air
pollution on farmers for stubble-burning is not going to help anyone because we
cannot have air purifiers everywhere and we, and our loved ones, need clean air
to breathe and live.
Think:
Who should be made to pay for these colossal health and economic losses caused
by air pollution? Why should not governments recover the economic losses from
corporations that have polluted our air? But if we look at past years,
governments have diluted, watered down or weakened environmental safeguards for
corporations, often in the garb of ‘ease of business’ or the ‘urgency to reboot
economy’.
It
is the government’s primary responsibility to ensure all citizens breathe clean
air. Governments also need to ensure that corporations do not engage in any
activity that pollutes our planet and its health, and hold those abusive
corporations to account who have harmed our planet or our health in any way.
Market-based solutions are not ‘solutions’ but just another way for
corporations to fill their coffers. So installing ‘air purifiers’ is not the
solution to resolve air pollution but stemming the source(s) of pollution and
revamping the development model so that we stop polluting our air and planet,
is.
PIL – Young Boy HARSHAL ’s Death due to Industrial
Waste
IN
THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL
WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2017
IN
THE MATTER OF
NAGARAJA
. M.R
editor
SOS e Clarion of Dalit & SOS e Voice for Justice
#
LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,
Hebbal
, Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State
....Petitioner
Versus
District
Pollution Control Board officer , Mysuru
Joint
Director , Department of Industries , Mysuru
Joint
Director , KIADB , Mysuru
Deputy
Commissioner , Mysuru
&
Others
....Respondents
PETITION
UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE
226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.
To
,
Hon'ble
The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship's Companion
Justices
of the Supreme Court of India.
The
Humble petition of the Petitioner above named.
MOST
RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :
1. Facts of
the case:
Young
boy HARSHAL died by burn injuries caused by industrial
waste in mysuru , Karnataka.
During
planning of Industrial Areas in Mysuru , waste dumping yards were
NOT planned suitably and NOT allocated
sufficient lands for the same , keeping in view industrial
requirements 20 years down the line.
It
is like building a house without toilet.
It
is criminal negligence of duty by KIADB , Industries department officials
who planned and approved development of these industrial sites.
It
is criminal negligence of duty by District Industries department
who gave license to these industries in the beginning
without physically verifying about the waste disposal methods
of these industries.
It
is criminal negligence of duty by Karnataka state pollution control board
officials who gave No Objection Certificate to these industries in the
beginning without physically verifying about the waste
disposal methods of these industries.
It
is criminal negligence of duty by Karnataka state pollution control board
officials , District Industries department officials who are
renewing License / No Objection Certificate to these
industries annually , without physically verifying
about the waste disposal methods of these industries.
It
is criminal negligence of duty by Deputy Commissioner , Mysuru
District to ensure adherence to law by other
department officials.
It
is criminal negligence of duty , violation of law , CRIMES by
responsible Executives / Owners of the industries who
are dumping these industrial wastes in a hush hush manner.
Read
details at following websites :
http://starofmysore.com/boy-walks-vacant-plot-loose-soil-succumbs-chemical-burns/http://starofmysore.com/boy-walks-vacant-plot-loose-soil-succumbs-chemical-burns/
2.
Question(s) of Law:
Is
commonman’s life so cheap , dispensable ?
If so , why cann’t you dispense off with the lives of
children of PCB , KIADB officials , Industrialists
? Are not officials , Industrialists accountable for this
criminal act of negligence ?
3.
Grounds:
Requests
for equitable justice , Prosecution of guilty officials ,
Responsible Industry owners.
4.
Averment:
Hereby
, I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL
for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public
servants in the present case, to perform their duties & to
avert further loss of lives.
PRAYER:
In
the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased:
1. To
order for fencing of the whole area , where
industrial waste is dumped causing fire.
2. To
order for 24 X 7 police vigil preventing any tress
passers.
3. To
order for supreme court monitored enquiry , as the
industrialists are high & mighty and may manipulate the samples
itself.
4. To
immediately order district administration not to go
ahead with spraying other chemicals over the dumping yard to
neutralize the waste chemicals. As it will alter the samples
and criminals , guilty industrialists will escape.
5. To
order for sample collection by multiple bodies , NGOs , so that
nobody can manipulate the samples.
6. After
sample analysis by supreme court empanelled experts , based on expert
advice steps to diffuse chemical waste must be taken.
7. To initiate
criminal prosecution against public officials who planned ,
approved these industrial area without provision for suitable waste
dumping yard.
8. To order
for criminal prosecution against guilty industrialists.
9. To order
for criminal prosecution against KSPCB , KIADB , Industries department
officials who gave NOC , renewing licenses every year to these guilty
industries.
10. To
order Government of Karnataka , to pay two crores compensation
to deceased boy Harsha’s family immediately and to
recover it from the guilty industrialist.
11. To treat
this as a PIL and to issue writ of mandamus to concerned officials in the
current case.
FOR
WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.
Dated
: 19.04.2017……… ………………….FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.
Place
: Mysuru , India……………………. PETITIONER-IN-PERSON
Shocking
but true! Mysuru has no place for dumping industrial waste
Truth
is like a bitter pill. It is tough to swallow. Mysuru, which has bagged the
‘Cleanest city’ award for two consecutive years, does not have an exclusive
place for dumping industrial waste. Shocking but it’s true!
The
industrial area in the Mysuru district does not have any specific place to dump
the industrial waste or hazardous waste. As soon as the news of a 14-year-old
boy Harshal, who succumbed with severe burns after stepping in to an open site
at Sadanahalli, came to light, localites alleged that the boy may have died
when he stepped in to the chemical and hazardous wastes that were dumped
illegally in the open place.
City
Today went on a reality check to identify where the chemical and industrial
wastes are dumped in the city. We found that there is not even a single dumping
yard or industrial waste disposal unit across the district.
There
are over 11 industrial areas including Hebbal, Metagalli, Koorgalli, Belavadi
and nearly 32,000 industries in the district but most of these industries do not
have an earmarked place for dumping industrial wastes. Though there is a rule
from the KIADB which states that at least 20 acres of land in all industrial
area must be reserved for disposal of Hazardous waste, the concerned officials
in the district have failed to act.
For
more than a decade, Mysore industries Association (MIA) has been battling to
bring a dumping yard in the district. In 2007, the MIA requested the KIADB to
allot land to set up a waste disposal unit. However, in the year 2009, the state
government allotted three acres of land near Koorgalli Industrial area and
decided to grant the maintenance responsibility to MIA. But later, the KIADB
handed over only part of the land from the allotted property. Realising the
fact that the industrial waste can’t be disposed in the partial land, MIA
requested the KIADB to at least provide 5 acre of land and the officials agreed
orally. But nothing has happened so far.
Speaking
to City Today, Secretary of MIA, Suresh Kumar Jain said, “There is no dumping yard
or an industrial waste disposal unit in the district. Though we have met and
discussed with the concerned officials to sanction a suitable place, the
proposal is still in papers and hasn’t come in to force.”
“The
issue was brought to the notice during single window meetings but no proper
action has taken place till now,” he added.
Last
year, Mysuru’s waste management scored over Chandigarh to clinch cleanest city
title. It is high time for concerned officials to allot an exclusive place for
dumping industrial waste in the district keeping health hazards in mind.
Mysuru: Boy's death - did currency
note printing chemical wreak havoc?
Mysuru, Apr 18: It has
been confirmed that waste containing water sensitive chemicals had claimed the
life of a boy at Naganalli in the outskirts of the city.
A team of experts, led by the district administration, which
collected samples of sand from the area, has sent them for laboratory testing.
The team found that the temperature of sand at the spot, which is finer as compared
to sand found in other areas in the village, has brown and grey hues.
Temperature at the spot stands at 110 degree Celsius, which is quite high.
Chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Laxman, said that four
samples from the spot and five from other areas around it have been collected
and sent for testing. Geologists and environment pollution officials were among
those who visited the area.
Some villagers have complained that discharge of poisonous
chemicals by some factories located near this area has caused this catastrophe.
Former chief minister of the state, H D Kumaraswamy, relying on certain
sources, has placed the blame on the government mint in the city for the
tragedy, duly accusing it of disposing off printing chemical waste at the spot.
Secretary of Mysore Industries Association, Suresh Kumar Jain, also has
supported this notion. He has alleged that the association had complained about
the unscientific disposal of printing chemicals by Reserve Bank of India about
five years back and that the Reserve Bank neither took steps to correct its
mistakes nor did it establish waste processing plant.
Some scientists attribute this phenomenon to the presence of
chemicals like Phosphorous and Sodium Hydrate. There have also been chances of
graphite and lead having caused the death. The experts hope to receive test
reports in about two weeks time. Senior environmental officer in Karnataka
State Pollution Control Board here, K M Lingaraju, said that the officials were
dumbstruck about the cause of fire in an open field where garbage or chemical
were not found to have been strewn around. He also added that the place is far
away from proper roads and that no tyre marks were found around the area.
In the meanwhile, district in-charge minister, H C Mahadevappa,
announced an ex gratia of two lac rupees to the family of Harshal (14), who
died of burns during his visit to the open field for defecation on Sunday. As
Manoj (17) suffered burns after sitting on a heap of sand, Harshal, who had accompanied
him, had pulled Manoj out. During this effort, Harshal reportedly fell into the
heap and suffered severe burns.
Harshal's father, Murthy, who held the factories located around
the area responsible for the death of his son, also criticized the officials
for not doing their duty of taking steps against the guilty promptly. He wants
the officials to at least wake up now to the danger posed by chemical waste and
take preventive measures before the waste causes further devastation.
NSG Team in Belavatha - Radio
Active Waste ?
http://starofmysore.com/nsg-team-city-probe-belavatha-mystery-fire/
Visakhapatnam Accident:
Time For Strict Action
— by E A S Sarma
To
Shri C K Mishra
Secretary
Ministry of
Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC)
Govt of India
Dear Shri Mishra,
You are aware of the
ghastly gas leak accident that took place at LG Polymers unit near
Visakhapatnam in the early hours of 7-5-2020. Several persons in the vicinity
of the accident site could not escape to safe places and got asphyxiated to
death. Several others had to be hospitalised for serious health problems
associated with their lungs, eyes, nose, skin etc. The impact of the toxic
gases that got released from the accident site extended upto 5-10km from it.
The disease burden caused by the accident will stay on for decades to come. In
short, irrespective of the laws, the rules and the procedures in force, such an
accident should shake the conscience of the nation and prompt those in
authority to introspect and self-correct.
Initial reports
suggest that the gases released in the accident predominantly comprise Styrene.
According to a study
conducted by IIT, Mumbai (“Vizag gas leak: Styrene levels 2,500 times more on
May 8: CSE Analysis” reported at
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/tab=wm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgxwHNMTsTdtrpdGPcnSWPrcFQqrM),
Styrene levels in the air at several locations around the accident site shot up
by more than 2,500 times compared to the safety threshold. If this were to be
taken as an accurate estimate, exposure to this of the population residing
within 5-10km of the site would have resulted in both short-term and long-term
disease burdens. It would result in ailments associated with the lungs, the
kidneys, the eyes and so on. Styrene is known to cause cancer. Considering the
known toxicity of Styrene, it would also result in stunting the affected
children’s mental abilities. All these social costs far outweigh the perceived
benefits of giving a red carpet treatment such industrial activity.
Your Ministry cannot
afford to assume the role of a passive onlooker in the case of the accident at
LG Polymers or any other similar accident. You may have unwittingly or
otherwise breached the Constitutional obligation of the State to protect the
human rights of the citizens by facilitating ex post facto approvals for such
potentially dangerous industrial units to operate.
Article 48A of the
Constitution requires your Ministry as well as the State to protect the
environment. Article 21 obligates the government to protect the citizen’s right
to life. Article 39 directs the government to ensure the citizen’s good health.
In pursuance of
Article 48A, your Ministry had brought in the Environment (Protection) Act
[EPA] and issued several rules and notifications from time to time. The central
theme of this statutory framework is to ensure that no industrial project is
undertaken without understanding its adverse impact on the environment, without
understanding its implications for the people’s health and without taking into
confidence those likely to be affected. That is the rationale underlying the
concept of prior Environment Clearance (EC) being obtained by a project
proponent. If an industrial project gets implemented without an environmental
impact appraisal and without public consultation and if your Ministry becomes a
rubber stamp to “regularise” such projects, it will defeat the purpose of
Article 48A and EPA.
Over the years, in the
absence of a firm commitment to the letter and the spirit of Article 48A, I am
afraid that your Ministry has gradually transformed itself from an independent
regulatory authority into a an agency that provides a regulatory garb to
thousands of hazardous industries and polluting industries that endanger the
people’s lives, damage the environment and affect the people’s health.
The LG Polymers
accident represents the tip of the iceberg of what is going happen in the case
of several thousands of industrial units handling hazardous chemicals, not
subject to any worthwhile regulatory scrutiny, beyond public accountability and
operating without any meaningful oversight and monitoring.
The notifications
issued by your Ministry such as SO 804(E) dated 14-3-2017 and SO 1030(E) dated
8-3-2018 that granted the largesse of ex post facto approvals “condoned”
many errant units that preempted a stringent technical scrutiny, avoided a
strict environment impact appraisal procedure and escaped a public consultation
process. Had your Ministry respected the letter and the spirit of Article 48A
of the Constitution and respected the Precautionary Principle in environmental
jurisprudence, ghastly accidents such the one that disrupted the lives of lakhs
of people around the industrial unit of LG Polymers would not take place.
We seem to have learnt
very little from the Bhopal gas tragedy and I doubt whether we will draw any
lessons from the latest Visakhapatnam disaster. In the ultimate analysis, it is
the people who are forced to pay the price for the extra-ordinary affection
displayed by the rules towards the larger businesses.
A time has come when
your Ministry can no longer pretend that the changes being made in the
environment impact assessment procedures would subserve the public interest.
I refer to the Draft
Notification issued by your Ministry in March, 2020 proposing far reaching
“simplifications” and paving the way for ex post facto approvals.
In this connection, I
have extracted below an observation made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on
1-4-2020 in Civil Appeal No. 1526 of 2016
“The concept of an ex
post facto EC is in derogation of the fundamental principles of environmental
jurisprudence and is an anathema to the EIA notification dated 27 January 1994.
It is, as the judgment in Common Cause holds, detrimental to the environment
and could lead to irreparable degradation. The reason why a retrospective EC or
an ex post facto clearance is alien to environmental jurisprudence is that
before the issuance of an EC, the statutory notification warrants a careful
application of mind, besides a study into the likely consequences of a proposed
activity on the environment. An EC can be issued only after various stages of
the decision-making process have been completed.
Requirements such as
conducting a public hearing, screening, scoping and appraisal are components of
the decision-making process which ensure that the likely impacts of the
industrial activity or the expansion of an existing industrial activity are
considered in the decision-making calculus. Allowing for an ex post facto
clearance would essentially condone the operation of industrial activities
without the grant of an EC. In the absence of an EC, there would be no
conditions that would safeguard the environment. Moreover, if the EC was to be
ultimately refused, irreparable harm would have been caused to the environment.
In either view of the matter, environment law cannot countenance the notion of
an ex post facto clearance. This would be contrary to both the precautionary
principle as well as the need for sustainable development “
While an ex post facto
approval may enhance the “ease of doing business” as it is fashionable to
describe it these days, it is simultaneously encouraging industrial units which
are unsafe, which pollute and which damage the people’s heath. I would
therefore earnestly request you to revisit the need for issuing the Draft
Notification of March, 2020. instead of diluting the environment laws and
procedures, in the public interest, it is necessary to strengthen them and
introduce a greater sense of public accountability in environmental regulation.
I understand that there
are thousands of industrial units which have escaped environmental scrutiny and
are awaiting the munificence of your Ministry to “regularise” their dangerous
existence. If you grant ex post facto approval for such units, you will only be
paving the way for more and more such units to come up, defying any kind of
scrutiny and monitoring. Please move away from the repugnant idea of such
approvals and introduce professional systems of prior environmental scrutiny.
I would also request
your Ministry to identify all such units that handle hazardous substances and
all such units that cause heavy pollution and close then down if they have
failed to be in strict compliance with the environmental norms. If you take the
public into confidence, it will become easy for you in the process of
identifying those units because it is the local communities that bear the brunt
of pollution and risk.
I hope you will take
immediate action on this.
Regards,
Yours sincerely,
E A S Sarma
Former Secretary to
GOI
Visakhapatnam
Nanjangud turns Kapila
toxic
Heavy
metals from industrial estate pollute Cauvery tributary
The markers of chemical pollution are everywhere in and around
Nanjangud, one of the State’s biggest industrial estates. Waterborne disease
and “pollution-induced migration” are only some of the documented impacts among
communities here.
But toxic effluents from the 532-acre estate — primarily lead
from paper mills and also cadmium, chromium, copper and nickel, according
recent studies — do not spare the Kapila, a Cauvery tributary on whose banks
Nanjangud is situated.
If any further proof is needed, researchers at the University of
Mysore have documented the accumulation of trace metals in freshwater fish in
the Kapila in Nanjangud area, including zinc, iron, nickel, lead, cadmium and
chromium, they report in the Journal of Pharmacy Research.
Not surprisingly, the water source has been classified in ‘C’
category (water needs treatment and disinfection for drinking) by the Karnataka
State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).
KSPCB officers, however, refute the charges that industrial
pollution is a major problem in this town.
Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ #
LIG-2 No 761,
HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR ,
HEBBAL
,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell
: 91 8970318202
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