NGT serves notice to Centre, Delhi govt over toxic gas leak

Orders pollution panels to conduct inspection, submit report within a week

May 09, 2017 07:54 am | Updated 07:54 am IST - New Delhi

Taking stock:  An NDRF member conducts an inspection at Rani Jhansi Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Tughlaqabad, where students fell ill after inhaling toxic fumes that had leaked from a container.  File photo:

Taking stock: An NDRF member conducts an inspection at Rani Jhansi Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Tughlaqabad, where students fell ill after inhaling toxic fumes that had leaked from a container. File photo:

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday issued notices to the Central and Delhi governments over the gas leak incident in Tughlaqabad on May 6 in which over 450 students were hospitalised.

The notices came a day after senior doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sceinces (AIIMS) said that the Tughlaqabad depot from where the gas leak happened should be shut and immediately shifted out from the high-density population area.

Shifting of depot

Taking suo motu cognisance of the incident, a Bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Delhi government, Railway Board and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), and asked them to file replies within a week.

The Bench also directed the Central Pollution Control Board and the DPCC to conduct an inspection and submit a report on the same.

It also issued a show-cause notice to the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) on why environment compensation should not be imposed on its Tughlaqabad depot and why it should not be shifted.

The order came after advocates Sanjay Upadhyay and Salik Shafique mentioned the matter, which the Tribunal took note of on its own.

“We have gone through the newspaper reports...Some emergency mechanism was required to check further environment degradation,” the Bench said.

‘Source of pollution’

The Tribunal will club the matter with a similar one from 2016, where warehousing expert Ajay Khera had claimed that non-Delhi bound operations at the Tughlaqabad depot were contributing to alarming levels of air pollution in the city. The depot should, therefore, be shifted, Mr. Khera had said.

The Tribunal also appointed advocate I. G. Kapila as amicus curiae and posted the case for hearing on May 15.

475 students taken ill

On Saturday, noxious fumes leaking from chemical drums imported from China led to 475 students of two girls’ schools in Tughlaqabad falling ill, with complaints of dizziness and headache. The schools were adjacent to the Tughlaqabad depot. According to the Delhi Police, each drum contained 220 l of chloro (methyl) phenylsilane, which is used in the manufacture of pesticides.

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