Plea to form Oil Spill Crisis Management Groups

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought response from the Centre and the State on a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction for constitution of Oil Spill Crisis Management Groups at State and district levels as per the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan-2015.

A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and S. Ananthi ordered notice on the plea filed by G. Thirumurugan of Ramanathapuram district, who said the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan-2015 was adopted in order to ensure an effective system for detection, reporting and effective response to oil spills.

The petitioner said the plan assigned task-based responsibilities to government departments and agencies. It provided a framework for coordination of integrated response by the departments and the agencies to protect environment from oil pollution.

As per the Plan, the government of every coastal State should constitute a State-level Oil Spill Crisis Management Group. But, despite witnessing many oil spills, Tamil Nadu was yet to constitute the group, he said.

The Plan also mandated constitution of district and local level crisis management groups in order to protect the livelihood of fishermen and marine resources, he said.