New Delhi: The CBI was directed by the Delhi High Court to take action against those responsible for allowing “extremely polluting and dangerous activities” at illegal industrial units here which led to several cases of cancer.
The court also asked the Delhi government to file a status report on the assistance given to victims and residents of Shiv Vihar in north-east Delhi, where illegal dyeing units were operating, and the remedial steps to be taken.
The observation came during the hearing of a PIL it had initiated on its own on a news report highlighting the release of carcinogenic by-products in the groundwater by the illegal dyeing units at Shiv Vihar.
The report had referred to the death of two persons on account of pollutants they had imbibed from the water polluted by non-conforming industries there. “Statutory authorities have allowed extremely polluting and dangerous activities to continue, resulting into developing cancer to several persons.
“The CBI has been probing the criminality and culpability of officials responsible for it. Take action and file the status report,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.
The bench said that the matter, however, could not rest on sealing of polluting units or taking action against those who had allowed carrying out these dangerous activities, and remedial steps were also necessary.
It also asked the counsel for the Central Ground Water Board of Union of India to place before the court an action plan on remedial steps for the water pollution caused by the “dangerous polluting units”.
Delhi government Standing Counsel Ramesh Singh told the court that the government was taking serious steps for medical treatment and assistance to the affected people and their families.
The court was also informed by the CBI that as per the responses received by various authorities, no licences were issued for commercial purposes or running factories. When the counsel for the East Delhi Municipal Corporation said that they issued challans to the units and started sealing them, the bench said, “It took such a long time to challan the units as now the water has become so polluted that people have developed cancer.”
The bench said it was concerned about how the situation reached this stage and asked the Delhi Pollution Control Board about the remedial steps to be taken.
The court also appointed Sunita Narain, director general of the Delhi-based advocacy group, the Centre for Science and Environment, as an amicus curiae in the matter and asked the three MCDs to place their reports on the action taken and the water status in the entire national capital before November 27, the next date of hearing.
The court had earlier said that illegal industrial units discharging poisonous substances were “worse than genocide” or a war crime.
The court had earlier said the CBI, after completing the investigation, should proceed in accordance with the law against all persons or authorities found responsible for the commencement and continuance of the illegal activities.
The court, while terming as an “eye opener” the media report titled “Is blue the colour of death in Delhi’s ‘cancer colony’?”, had on May 25 directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry into flourishing of illegal industrial and commercial activities in the area.
Many other east Delhi residential areas such as Mustafabad, Seemapuri and Seelampur were similar hotbeds of polluting units. After the high court took up the matter, the EDMC claimed it had closed down 54 units in Mustafabad.
PTI