Mumbai Municipal Corporation lacks authority to enforce environmental laws at Ward Level Letter to Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra & Ors...

Mumbai Municipal Corporation lacks authority to enforce environmental laws at Ward Level

Letter to Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra & Ors...

✍️Jagdish K Kashikar - Freelancer Journalist,

9768425757

Mumbai:-We are aghast to learn that duties and functions of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, which is  supposed to be implementing various environmental legislations in the state of Maharashtra, mainly Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water ( Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, have totally abdicated and now Mumbai Municipal Corporation  being a Planning Authority is encroaching on the exclusive jurisdiction of MPCB in total violation of the mandates under the aforesaid two laws.

Recently the BMC has come out with Task Force at Ward level to monitor air pollution. Civic action will follow if builders fail to self-certify that a construction site meets dust mitigation guidelines like erecting metal sheets around the periphery of construction sites, water-fogging during excavation and loading/unloading construction material and sprinkling of soil strata from time to time before excavation starts.

Today, there are 11,215 construction sites in Mumbai and the number keeps on increasing every passing day. Please see attached chart.

It is common knowledge that MPCB itself does not follow the sitting criteria for erection of RMC Plants in city. It is well known fact that no RMC Plant can be erected in the vicinity of thickly populated areas and a distance of 100 mtrs is required to be maintained from human habitation for setting up of a RMC plant,  but all is good on paper only.

There are several RMC Plants in operation, if one travels beyond Vasai Creek on Mumbai - Ahmedabad National Highway, which are spewing venomous dust in the air and polluting the said Region, but VVMC and MPCB, have turned Nelson's Eye to all wrong doings.

We hereby state that BMC lacks technical competence to enforce the environmental laws and therefore the direction given by BMC in only a builder friendly measure,  to pollute the air, since it is common knowledge that how some of corrupt BMC Officials function.

As such the constitution of the Committee, consisting of 7 members by BMC Administrator cum Municipal Commissioner, is per se illegal much less the said Committe lacks legal teeth to prepare Air Pollution Mitigation Plan and implement the same at Ward level.

The BMC has only limited role to ensure that the RMC Plants which are constructed, meet the construction standards as prescribed under the provisions of the Development Control Promotion Regulations, 2034, however the grant of permissions viz. Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate a RMC plant exclusively lies in MPCB domain.

We therefore demand that BMC should refrain from enforcing environmental laws and should not encroach on duties and functions of MPCB.

We also demand that State Government should immediately intervene in the matter and appoint a Committee to hear complaints of citizens against MPCB Officials, who are more often seen siding with the Polluters. Had the MPCB acted on citizens complaints, in time, the question of BMC interference in air pollution matters would have not arisen.

Watchdog Foundation

Bombay East Indian Association