PCB moots reassessment of environment compensation on corpn.

Proposal finds place in report submitted to SLMC in connection with Brahmapuram fire

The heap of garbage at the dumping yard of the Kochi Corporation at Brahmapuram.

The State Pollution Control Board has proposed reassessment of the environment compensation slapped on the Kochi Corporation for its failure to comply with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, at its Brahmapuram facility.

Interestingly, the move to carry out a reassessment of the quantum of environment compensation has come at a time when the headquarters of the board in Thiruvananthapuram is sitting on the assessment of ₹10.05-crore environment compensation on the civic body made by its regional office in Ernakulam in last October.

The proposal to carry out a reassessment of the environment compensation has found place in a report filed by the board before the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) on Solid Waste Management after a major fire breakout at Brahmapuram on February 18. The assessment report filed by the regional office of the board on October 18 had mentioned that the period [of assessment] was from April 9, 2019 to October-end.

In its findings, the board had blamed the civic body for its failure to make improvements or take sufficient rectification measures at Brahmapuram for the past nine years. The dump site of the corporation had been functioning without the authorisation of the board as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, it said.

The Environment Compensation of ₹10.05 crore had included capital cost, operation and maintenance cost and environment externalities by considering the average waste generation as 365.19 tonnes a day (April 9, 2019 to October-end based on the quantity of waste collected for May, June, and July). It was fixed presuming that the corporation had provided waste management facility for only 10% of the total waste generation (considering that it is transferring a portion of plastic waste to recyclers) as per the formula derived by the Central Pollution Control Board and as directed by the National Green Tribunal at its hearing held on October 14.

Repeated efforts to contact S. Sreekala, Member Secretary of both the board and the SLMC respectively, on why the board had not yet acted on the ₹10.05-crore environment compensation assessment made in October, proved futile.