Yesterday, a Bench comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, Justice Sudhir Agarwal, and Expert Member Dr A. Senthil Vel. of the National Green Tribunal imposed a fine of Rs. 100 crores on Kochi Municipal Corporation. The Court came down heavily on Kerala state and mentioned their failure to manage waste effectively at the Brahmapuram waste dumping yard.

The Court also pointed out the fire outbreak which took place on March 2 with devastating consequences. The Court directed KMC to appropriate remediation measures for the damage caused by the fire and for addressing public health concerns.

“As a result of the utter failure of the State authorities in performing their inalienable basic duties of providing pollution-free environment.”

The bench also ordered the Chief Secretary of Kerala to hold accountable the officers responsible for the failures that led to the situation at hand. The bench ordered to take action against the authorities under both criminal law and through departmental proceedings and for the results of these actions to be made public in two months.

“good governance in the matter of waste management is being neglected for a long time to the detriment of the environment and public health and no one has taken moral responsibility for such gross failure of rule of law and damage to public health. It is difficult to understand what is the value of citizens’ right to life and safety with such an attitude of total neglect by authorities in Government. This calls for soul searching and also high-level enquiry to determine culpability in the larger public interest.”

“Such attitude of State authorities is threat to rule of law. We hope the situation is remedied at the higher level in the State such as the DGP and the Chief Secretary to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law”, the bench stated in its order.