The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave polluting industrial units three months to install effluent treatment plants to remove contaminants from the wastes before they are released into water bodies.
It directed the State Pollution Control Boards across the country to cut power supply to non-compliant companies.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar directed the pollution control boards to notify the industrial units about the judicial order through a common advertisement.
At the end of three months from the date of the publication of the advertisement, the pollution boards’ officials would carry out extensive inspections to ascertain whether the industrial units within their jurisdiction had set up the treatment plants.
Violations would be intimated to the electricity supply boards and power supply to the defaulting industrial units would be disconnected till they installed functional treatment plants.
While disposing of a PIL filed by NGO Paryavaran Suraksha Samithi, the court put the onus on government bodies to establish common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) across the country within three years of acquiring land. The States would then have to submit reports confirming this to the National Green Tribunal concerned under whose jurisdiction they come. The local civic authorities could formulate norms to levy cess from users if required.
The Bench, however, left the issue of setting up zero liquid discharge (ZLD) plants to the authorities concerned after they complete the first round with regard to CETPs.
