Scribd
Upload
21 views2 pages

25-02-2019 New Delhi Public Information On Letter Petitions/e-Mails

The National Green Tribunal has begun accepting genuine environmental complaints submitted by letter or email to improve access to justice for citizens. Between July 2018 and January 2019, the tribunal received 1691 letters/emails regarding a variety of environmental issues, such as encroachment on parks and water bodies, tree cutting, sand mining, pollution from industries, and groundwater depletion. After review, 321 complaints were admitted as formal petitions. Of the 239 petitions disposed of so far, 70 were resolved by directing authorities to take required action, while 139 required authorities to submit reports on actions taken. This initiative has revealed deficiencies in enforcement and monitoring by local environmental authorities.

Uploaded by

Abhishek Anand
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
21 views2 pages

25-02-2019 New Delhi Public Information On Letter Petitions/e-Mails

The National Green Tribunal has begun accepting genuine environmental complaints submitted by letter or email to improve access to justice for citizens. Between July 2018 and January 2019, the tribunal received 1691 letters/emails regarding a variety of environmental issues, such as encroachment on parks and water bodies, tree cutting, sand mining, pollution from industries, and groundwater depletion. After review, 321 complaints were admitted as formal petitions. Of the 239 petitions disposed of so far, 70 were resolved by directing authorities to take required action, while 139 required authorities to submit reports on actions taken. This initiative has revealed deficiencies in enforcement and monitoring by local environmental authorities.

Uploaded by

Abhishek Anand
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

25-02-2019

New Delhi
Public Information on Letter petitions/e-mails

In a bid to improve access to justice for common citizens battling environmental


issues the National Green Tribunal has in exceptional cases admitted genuine
complaints/grievances received through post/e-mail as duly filed applications.
The initiative that began in July 2018 is an acknowledgement that ordinary citizens
who cannot afford costs of litigation must be empowered to seek remedy for
environmental harm. They cannot be hassled with the process and costs of engaging
advocates, filing a case and following it up subsequently.
Grievances received through post/email is registered and subjected to preliminary
scrutiny at the Registry level. The grievances then are examined in-house and are
carefully studied and the substantive issue (if any) is identified.
After technical scrutiny, genuine grievances raising substantive issues are listed for
hearing as Original Application (Letter/e-mail Petition) as per the discretion of the
Tribunal.

Between July 2018 and January 2019, the Tribunal received 1691 Letters/E-mails
from across the country.

The environmental issues identified in the letters/emails include:

i. Encroachment in Parks, Lakes and the Water Bodies


ii. Tree cutting and felling.
iii. Sand Mining in Rivers.
iv. Stone quarrying and stone crushers.
v. Operation of service/tiny industries causing water and air pollution in
residential areas (Jeans manufacturing, Dyeing units, Lock manufacturing, Steel
polish, etc.)
vi. Air pollution from industries including rubber/tyre burning (Rice mills,
Bricks,Rubber burning, Fly ash, etc.)
vii. Ground Water depletion, illegal use of ground water etc.
viii. Illegal constructions.
ix. Environmental impact due to Mobile towers.

Some of the key issues in particular are:

i. Guidelines to be developed/review on Noise/Emissions by Motorcycles


ii. Shoe industries in Agra
iii. Oil drilling extraction industries
iv. Pollution issues relating to Railway sidings
v. Bringing issues relating to river pollution (Panchganga, Bold, Krishna, etc.)

Observations

The Tribunal’s careful examination of issues in the letters/emails shows that the
grievances in letters/emails are raised mostly because citizens did not approach
concerned statutory authorities that are first-responders to day-to-day issues or
because such authorities did not act in an effective manner.

1
For examples, such authorities include local municipal bodies, Fire Department,
Police, Pollution Control Boards, Town & Country Planning, Flood and Irrigation
departments, Sewerage and Drainage departments, Slum Development and
Encroachment Removal bodies etc.

This clearly shows that enforcement and local level vigilance/monitoring in these
statutory bodies are deficient. It would be appropriate that Local Agencies strengthen
their Public Grievance Redressal Division (PGRD) to be equipped with required
infrastructure to provide remedy expeditiously.

Statistics
 Between July 2018 and January 2019, the Tribunal received 1691 Letters/E-
mails out of which 321 have been admitted as ‘Petitions’.
 Out of 321 petitions, 239 have been disposed of.
 The action taken on the 239 petitions are as follows:

S.No Action Taken Sum


1 Petitions disposed with ‘No Action’1 68
2 Petitions disposed with ‘Action’2 70
3 Petitions ordered for receiving Action 139
taken Report3

4 Petitions linked with already pronounced 02


orders4

1
Upon finding ‘no substantive cause’ in the grievance, these petitions were dismissed.
2
These petitions were referred to the concerned Agencies with the direction to take required action
within one month. The authorities may have not been moved previously or no effective action was
taken.
3
These are petitions requiring monitoring of execution. Orders were passed on petitions under this
category with directions to concerned statutory bodies to take action and submit an Action Taken
Report to the Tribunal. These petitions will be listed again for scrutiny of the reports and further
action (if necessary).
4
These petitions have been linked with previous petitions where orders on similar issues have
already been passed by the Tribunal.

You might also like