DECCAN INQUIRER
Weekly e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. special edition. 01...........09.03.2021
PIL – Young Boy HARSHAL ’s
Death due to Industrial Waste
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2021
IN THE MATTER OF
NAGARAJA . M.R
editor DALIT ONLINE
& DECCAN INQUIRER
# 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 : 09.03.2021……… ………………….FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.
Place : Mysuru , India…………………….
PETITIONER-IN-PERSON
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.
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
WhatsApp 91 8970318202
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