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New UserCitizens to move court over coal approvals by MPCB
19 Aug 2015
A year after banker Meera Sanyal and retired vice admiral IC Rao moved Bombay High Court over the immense pollution caused by toxic mountains of coal along Mumbai's eastern sea front, they are now set to petition the court over the role of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in sanctioning fossil fuel.
"Everyone assumes that the port trust will stop this activity but the deadline for doing so is being postponed for the last few years. Somebody must take a hard decision to stop it," said Rao.
Around 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of imported coal currently lies in the open on Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land, greatly damaging the environment. People living and working around the coal mountain suffer from severe respiratory ailments and cough up black phlegm each morning. A month ago, TOI found thick plumes of smoke coming out of the coal mountain; coal is a substance that combusts spontaneously.
MbPT's 'consent to operate' for coal was set to expire last September. Sanyal and Rao petitioned the HC the same month, seeking to prevent the pollution board from renewing the consent for coal-handling. The court asked the pollution regulator to treat the petition as a representation and hear the case.
For ten months, the MbPT continued handling coal without a valid consent order while the pollution regulator dragged its feet on the case. Sanyal and Rao had to prod the pollution regulator to conduct its first hearing, goad it to release the minutes of the meeting and, subsequently, conduct a site visit. An MPCB report after the site visit outlines irregularities in the handling of coal.
Yet, on August 1, the pollution regulator discreetly renewed MbPT's 'consent to operate' for coal, without informing Rao and Sanyal, whose case they were hearing on the matter. The consent has been backdated to September 30, 2014, and extends to October 30, 2015, leaving the port trust with only three months before they must renew the consent order once again. The MPCB says it wants to give MbPT one last chance to meet environmental norms on coal handling. Ironically, the port trust has been receiving complaints of the pollution caused by its coal handling for the last decade. Mumbai's traditional fisherfolk, who live in a housing society in Sewri, said they are suffering from respiratory illnesses because of the coal dust that surrounds their colony.