KOCHI: Despite the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the country’s supreme body for the environmental issues, setting the Kochi Corporation a clear deadline to pay Rs 1 crore as fine and Rs 3 crore as performance guarantee to the Pollution Control Board for not setting up a waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram, the civic body seems to have ignored the order.
Though the deadline by the NGT to pay the total sum expires on November 5, the Corporation has not considered it seriously so far. Mayor Soumini Jain convened a meeting of the officers on Thursday but did not take a decision. In order to spend such a big amount from the plan fund, it needs to get approval from the council.
“We’ve four more days to take a decision. The discussion is going on and we’ll take it at the right moment,” said Corporation Health Standing Committee chairperson V K Minimol, when asked about the four-hour long meeting.
Deputy Mayor T J Vinod said: “Though I heard such an order from the NGT, I didn’t see it.”Even the Mayor too considered the NGT order in a light manner as she turned down the Opposition’s demand to convene a special meeting.
“The Mayor alone can’t take a decision to pay such a huge amount from the Corporation’s plan fund. It should get the council’s nod. They’re still groping in the dark as they’ve considered the NGT order in a lighter spirit,” said V P Chandran.
The NGT order followed the visit of an advocate’s commission in September 2016 to the Brahmapuram plant to review the waste segregation process. The NGT then issued an order to set up a plant to prevent wastewater from entering the Kadambrayar River.