HC directs inspection of polluting factories

JAMMU: Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh and his son may land in yet another trouble as the Division Bench of J&K High Court on Wednesday directed revenue authorities to inspect the polluting unit including one tiles factory belonging to the minister’s kin.

A Division Bench of the J&K High Court directed Revenue Authorities to inspect the polluting unit and conduct fresh measurements of all requirements enshrined under SRO 302 and criteria prescribed by the State Pollution Control Board using latest scientific technology like GPS hand-held devices and others.

This was informed by Advocate Ankur Sharma, the counsel for appellants Rattno Devi and Others
in a LPA filed against State of J&K and Others, who also added that the Commander of the nearby Controlled Cantonment-Army Installation- has also termed the same unit a security threat.

After heated arguments that lasted for nearly an hour, the court was prima facie satisfied that NOCs by the unit have been obtained in sheer violation of guidelines by fudging the distance and other requirements prescribed under the criteria.

The counsel for petitioner further argued that abusing ministerial position, NOCs and permissions have been obtained illegally, which is a fraud on the constitutional ethos of a democratic setup.

The concerned Advocate also said that a prima facie case was also made out on the ground that the Unit exists only at a distance of 100 metres from the controlled Cantonment and the commander of the Cantonment has written to DC Kathua complaining about the same. No unit can exist within a range of one kilometer from an army area in terms of clause 4(K) of SRO 302 of the Department of Geology and Mining.

Hearing counsel for both the parties during an hour long arguments, the DB comprising of CJ B. D Ahmed and J. Sanjeev Kumar directed the revenue authorities to conduct measurements of all requirements including distance from the forest range using latest scientific technology including GPS devices.

Pertinent to mention here is that on an earlier occasion when the villagers of the area had conducted measurements using hand held GPS devices on the orders of the High Court, Forest range, health institution and population was found to be within range of restrictions.

Forest range which is required to be 1 KM away, using latitude and longitude was found to be only 808 M thereby exposing the bluff of NOCs. The experts say that till this inspection is conducted, no construction activity can be started at the site.