NHRC issues Advisory to the Centre, States, UTs and High Courts to prevent, minimise and mitigate impacts of Environmental Pollution and Degradation on Human Rights

New Delhi, 18th May, 2022

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India, headed by Mr. Justice Arun Kumar Mishra, has issued an Advisory to the Centre and the State Governments to prevent, minimise and mitigate impacts of Environmental Pollution and Degradation on Human Rights. The Commission has finalized the Advisory in consultation with the domain experts by examining the effects of air & water pollution and ecological degradation on enjoyment of basic human rights.

Issuing the Advisory, the Commission has observed that in spite of having one of the world’s best statutory and policy framework for environment protection, India is experiencing a serious problem of air and water pollution and ecological degradation causing impediments in the enjoyment of basic human rights.

The Commission, in a letter through its Secretary General, Mr. Devendra Kumar Singh to the Secretaries of concerned Union Ministries/Departments, Chief Secretaries of States and Administrators of Union Territories and the Registrar of all High Courts, has asked for the implementation of its recommendations in the Advisory and sought Action Taken Report within three months.

The Advisory has focused on five key areas for action by the Centre and State Governments. These include: Punishment of polluters and violators of environmental laws; Prevention and minimization of vehicular pollution; Processing of proposals seeking clearances/approvals mandated by various environmental laws in an informed, transparent and non-partisan manner; Measures required for development, promotion, propagation and replication of cost effective innovative measures to prevent, minimise and mitigate environmental pollution and degradation & strengthening and capacity building of local bodies.

Some of the important recommendations, among others, are as follows:

• The Union and State Governments should make efforts to ensure effective and expeditious punishment of polluters and violators of environmental laws. These efforts should including strengthening of Pollution Control Boards (PCBs) and other regulatory authorities;

• Creation of separate Investigation and prosecution wings in Pollution Control Boards and regular training of the staff;

• Making it mandatory for the Pollution Control Boards to include in their annual reports a chapter containing details of investigation of cases;

• State Governments should undertake annual performance audit of the State Pollution Control Boards by independent expert auditors;

• The State Judicial Academies, State Legal services Authorities and District Legal Services Authorities in collaboration with the Pollution Control Boards should organize workshops, seminars and training programs on various provisions of environmental laws and harmful impacts of pollution and environmental degradation for all stakeholders;

• High Courts should establish Special Environmental Courts and ensure speedy trial of the cases involving violation of environmental laws;

• Creation of separate Investigation and prosecution wings in Pollution Control Boards and regular training of the staff;

• The Centre and State Government should monitor performance of agencies entrusted to issue pollution under control (PUC) certificates and take appropriate punitive measures in case of false, fabricated or fraudulent certificates;

• The Centre should endeavour to complete, as early as possible, the ongoing project to establish a geographical information system (GIS) based Decision Support System (DSS) containing updated layers on each parameter considered for grant of Consent to Establish/Operate and Environmental/Forest/Wildlife/Coastal Regulation Zone Clearances;

• The DSS for processing of applications seeking prior consent/clearance should have a section on environment management knowledge, containing details of all available best practices on prevention, minimization and mitigation of environmental pollution and degradation;

• The Union and State Governments should create public awareness through print, electronic and social media about best practices on prevention, minimization and mitigation of environmental pollution and degradation;

• Each Local Body should establish an environmental cell to plan, supervise and monitor various activities to prevent, minimize and mitigate environmental pollution/degradation and for waste management;

• The State Finance Commissions may undertake assessment as to requirement of funds by local bodies.

(For more details, CLICK HERE for the Advisory)

Earlier, chairing the Commission’s first Core Advisory Group meeting on Environment, Climate Change and Human Rights on 23rd March, 2022, the NHRC Chairperson, Mr. Justice Arun Mishra, had expressed serious concerns over the degrading environment and said that despite rules and laws, the ground situation was not improving.

The meeting, moderated by Mr. H.C Chaudhary, Joint Secretary, NHRC was attended, among others, by the NHRC Members, Mr. Justice M.M. Kumar, Mrs. Jyotika Kalra, Dr. D.M. Mulay, the then Secretary General, Mr. B. Pradhan, Registrar (Law), Mr. Surajit Dey, Joint Secretary, Mrs. Anita Sinha, Core Group Members, Dr. M.C. Mehta, Mr. R.R. Shami, IAS (Retd), Mr. Niranjan Dev Bharadwaj, Adjunct Professor, Dr. Promode Kant IFS (retd.), Prof. N.H. Ravindranath, Mrs. Patricia Mukhim and Mr. Sundaram Verma.

Mr. Neelesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Prashant Gargava, Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board, Mrs. Padma S. Rao, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur, Mr. B. Rath, Technical Expert, National Rainfed Area Authority and Mr. R.K. Dogra, Deputy Director, ICFRE also shared their views in the meeting organized in hybrid mode.

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