HYDERABAD: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Telangana government to notify at least three major cities and towns in the state, and three villages from each district, as model cities/towns/villages on its website within two weeks, and ensure that within six months, all environmental norms are followed in these places.
The State has been directed to submit a quarterly report on the matter, with its first report due on July 30. Further, the NGT said the government must ensure that within a year, all environmental norms must be followed across the State.
The NGT directed the chief secretary to personally monitor the state of compliance of environmental norms with the district magistrates at least once in two weeks and directed that district magistrate should monitor the compliance at least once a month. The judgment was passed by the NGT in its order dated April 29, and it has directed for providing a report on the matter by August 7.
These directions are expected to push the State government towards falling in line with respect to enforcement of various environmental laws like solid waste management rules and plastic waste management rules, along with things like efficient management of polluted river stretches.
As of now, the status of implementation of the various environmental norms in Telangana is haphazard. For example, segregation of waste at source is just 43 per cent in the State, and around 800 registered healthcare facilities do not send biomedical waste to treatment facilities.
The NGT also pulled up the State government for not taking strict action against polluters and has directed it to estimate the value of environmental degradation caused due to polluters and recover the rightful compensation from them, along with conducting a performance audit of all environmental regulatory bodies.
These directions were issued by the NGT as part of an ongoing case on compliance of solid waste management rules. Chief secretaries of all states and UTs were asked to present a compliance report on eight points. Telangana Chief Secretary SK Joshi presented the State’s compliance report on April 29. The CS has been directed to be present in person to submit a report on November 15.