The court cannot be a silent spectator to a situation where a whole new industrial township is set up without giving the proper infrastructure of common effluent treatment plant (CETP), municipal solid waste plant (MSWP) and sewage treatment plants (STP) in the Baddi-Barotiwla-Nalagarh industrial area.
It is indeed a sad state of affairs where the state is placing the cart before the horse.
Normally, the infrastructure should be first put in place and then people should come and start living there. Here thousands of migrants, industrial workers and management officials have joined, but there is no infrastructure worth the name.
This observation was made by the Himachal Pradesh High Court on a public interest litigation where the demand of the public is that the CETP, MSWP and STP were to be set up at Baddi and Barotiwala.
The court observed that the State Pollution Control Board had produced a list of 12 industries giving dates on which power disconnection orders were issued by it and the dates on which the power was actually disconnected by the electricity board.
A perusal of this document reveals a shocking state of affairs. The electricity board in some cases had taken more than six months to disconnect power.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjay Karol observed: “In our earlier orders we had indicated that in case we find that the state is lax in fulfilling its statutory obligations we may consider passing an order stopping the setting up of any fresh industry till proper infrastructure is provided. We do not want to come in the way of economic development of the state, but the state must also realise its obligations to the public at large.”
Expressing its annoyance, the court said, “Before passing any order directing that no new industry be set up in the area, we are again giving the state government another opportunity to come up with a complete time frame on every aspect of the matter and directed the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit explaining that when will the project study be completed and detailed project report be prepared and how long it will take to invite tenders and construct and operate the plants.”
The Bench directed her to file an affidavit within three weeks and listed the matter on May 20.
The court also directed the member secretary, HP State Pollution Control Board, to file on or before the next date an affidavit along with a tabular statement in which the list of offending industries shall be given indicating the name of the industry and number of times it had been found to be causing pollution along with reference to the date of notice.
