Sunetra Singh Yadav vs UPPCB & Ors

In this Original Application, the applicant being resident of District Firozabad, UP has raised a complaint about rising level of pollution due to illegal operation of the brick kilns in Firozabad and bordering Districts namely Hathras, Kasganj, Agra, Etah, Mainpuri and Etawah. The allegation is that the brick kilns are operating in these Districts in violation of the environmental/statutory norms and they are burning not only coal but also other prohibited waste materials in violation of MoEF&CC Notification dated 22.02.2022. It is also the allegation that inspite of Firozabad being TTZ area, no action has been taken by TTZ Authority, UPPCB and State of UP to curb the rising level of pollution on account of illegally operating brick kilns in the Districts concerned.

The Tribunal by order dated 21.11.2022 had constituted a Joint Committee and had called for a report by the Joint Committee to ascertain the current compliance status and remedial action.

The action taken report in compliance of the order dated 21.11.2022 was filed by the Joint Committee on 14.02.2023 which reflects the status as under:-

“4. Out of total 1320 Brick Kilns situated in these 7 districts, there are 712 Brick Kilns having valid Consent to Operate (CTO). There are 136 Brick Kilns which do not have valid CTO as on 31-01-2023. All these Brick Kilns have been issued Closure Orders by U.P. Pollution Control Board U/s 31A of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 as amended. Closure Orders against 472 Brick Kilns had already been issued earlier in all these 7 districts.

418 Brick Kilns were inspected by the District Level Committee upto 31-01-2023 and based on these inspections, 183 Brick Kilns were issued Notices for minor shortcomings such as no / improper facility for stack monitoring and 15 Brick Kilns were found without CTO to whom Closure Order have been issued and out of them 10 Brick Kilns were found operational and on them a total Environmental Compensation of Rs. 21,37,500/-has been imposed. Rest 5 Brick Kilns were found non operational so only Closure Orders were issued. Prosecution proceedings against 8 Brick Kilns who were operating inspite of earlier Closure Orders has been initiated and a total deterrent EC of Rs. 9,75,000/- has been imposed on them.

6- As per the information received from the Mining Department of all 7 districts, only 345 Brick Kilns have deposited Royalty. Letters of Mining Department of these 7 districts is enclosed as Annexure-X.

As per information received from District minor irrigation/UPGWD, only 7 Brick Kilns have obtained / applied NOC for ground water abstraction. A letter dated 11-02-2023 has been sent to Director, Ground Water Department, Uttar Pradesh to Provide the Action Taken Report against the defaulter Brick Kilns which have not obtained the NOC from Ground Water Department. Reply is still awaited. A copy of letter is enclosed as Annexure-XI.”

There is nothing on record that against all the violating brick kilns, action of imposition of EC has been taken or closure orders have been issued. The action is reflected only against some such brick kilns. It is also not on record, if after imposition of EC, the recovery has been made or after passing of the closure order, the compliance of those closure orders have been ensured. Hence, the possibility of the operation of the brick kilns in violation of the environmental norms cannot be ruled out.

Hence,  UPPCB  is  directed  to  file  a  fresh  action  taken  report indicating the status of imposition of EC against the defaulting brick kilns, recovery thereof and passing of closure orders in appropriate cases and compliance thereof.

Let the action taken report be filed before the Registrar General of the Tribunal within three months by e-mail at judicial-ngt@gov.in preferably in the form of searchable PDF/ OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF and if found necessary, the matter may be listed before the Bench.

I.A. No. 886/2023 has been filed by the Brick Kilns Association, Hathras with the prayer to direct the operation of the Brick Kilns of Hathras only during the month of March and June. After hearing the Learned Counsel for the applicant on perusal of the IA, we find that no reasonably acceptable ground has been disclosed in the IA for granting such a prayer. Along with the IA, not a single document has been enclosed justifying such a prayer.

Hence, we do not find any ground to allow the prayer.

I.A. is accordingly rejected.

The OA is accordingly disposed of.