The Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal on April 26 constituted a five-member committee of officials to inquire into the death of five labourers at the Shri Ulka LLP fish processing unit in Mangalore Special Economic Zone on April 17.
In its order passed on the basis of the news reports, the Bench comprising of Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel and members Sudhir Agarwal and A. Senthil Vel asked the committee to visit the site and ascertain the cause of incident. The status of compliance of applicable environmental safety norms, status of payment of compensation and measures to be adopted for preventing such occurrence in future should also be examined.
The committee comprises the Regional Officer of Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change, Bengaluru; officials from Central Pollution Control Board and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the District Magistrate and the Secretary to Fisheries Department. KSPCB will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance. NGT gave two months time to the committee to submit the report.
The Bench said prima facie there appears violation of environmental safety norms to be followed in disposal of waste water. The Proponent of such hazardous commercial activity, the bench said, is liable to pay compensation on ‘Absolute Liability’ principle as laid down by the apex court in 1987.
The bench said pendency of the matter will not debar payment of compensation by the project proponent or by the authorities to the heirs of the victims. It will not affect adoption of necessary preventive measures for preventing recurrence of such incidents in the future, the bench said. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on July 29.
