Brahmapuram fire: NGT slaps Rs 100 crore on Kochi corporation

The NGT took suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report and imposed the fine on the Kochi Corporation, while observing that there was utter negligence.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore on the Kochi Corporation in a suo motu case.

The NGT had initiated the case on the basis of news reports regarding the fire that recently broke out at the Brahmapuram waster dump in Kochi city.

A Bench comprising Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Dr. A Senthil Vel were of the opinion that the State government and its authorities completely neglected their duties with regard to solid waster management, which led to the fire.

"State of Kerala and its authorities have been utter failure and have rampantly violated the statutory solid waste management rules and orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court," the NGT order said.

No accountability has been fixed for this failure so far, the Bench noted.

"Except for giving future plans, no fixing of accountability is proposed even now which is matter of regret. No prosecution has been launched against the guilty for criminal offences under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and also under relevant provisions of IPC nor action taken for violation of orders of Hon'ble Supreme Court and repeated orders of this Tribunal in proceedings transferred to the Tribunal by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Such attitude of State authorities is threat to rule of law. We hope the situation is remedied at the higher level in the State such as the DGP and the Chief Secretary to uphold the Constitution and the mandate of environmental law," the Bench held.

The NGT imposed Rs 100 crore fine on Kochi Corporation to be deposited with the Chief Secretary of Kerala within one month for necessary remediation measure, including dealing with public health issues of the victims.

The NGT directed the Chief Secretary of Kerala to expeditiously fix the accountability for the neglect on the officers concerned.

"Apart from above, we direct the Chief Secretary, Kerala to fix accountability of concerned officers for such gross failures and initiate action under criminal law as well as by way of departmental proceedings, following due process and place the same in public domain within two months" the NGT said.

The order was issued on a case taken up by the NGT suo motu based on a report by The Hindu regarding the fire, which resulted in a smog that led to choking the entire city for well over a week.

"No one has taken moral responsibility for such gross failure of rule of law and damage to public health. It is difficult to understand what is the value of citizen's right to life and safety with such attitude of total neglect by authorities in Government. This calls for soul searching and also high level enquiry to determine culpability in larger public interest," the NGT said.