CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set a three-week deadline for the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) to initiate criminal proceedings against two illegal brick kilns operating in Jaleswar of Balasore district.
The NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata set the deadline after submission of the tribunal constituted joint committee’s report on Friday. The green body had constituted the committee after Radhashyam Sahoo, a resident of the locality, filed a complaint seeking intervention into illegal brick clay earth mining and operation of two brick kilns - Devee and Sathi - at Mahammadnagar Patna under Jaleswar tehsil.
According to the petition, the two brick kilns are in close proximity (within 100 metres) of human habitation, an Anganwadi centre and agricultural fields. They were operating in violation of the State Environment department’s December 6, 2015 order prohibiting the location of brick kilns near railway lines, national and state highways, high tide line, places of worship, educational institutions, hospitals and healthcare centres, flood embankments, river banks and the periphery of a town.