Brief reporting on Sonai River/Khal in ... - India Water Portal

13 Environmental Laws
& the people *
Shri P Lakshmana
Reddy
District & Sessions
Judge,
Visakihapatnam
*Edited version of
the Valedictory
Address at the 30th
Public Hearing on
Environment and
Development held in
Visakhapatnam on
26 October 1996 by
the People’s
Commission on
Environment and
Development India
and the Voluntary
Association for
Sustainable
Environment
14 The Water
(Prevention And
Control of Pollution)
Act, 1974
Section 24
Prohibition on use of
stream or well for
disposal of polluting
matter, etc.
Relevant to our
allegation
On 10 April 1996, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh delivered
judgement in Writ Petition No. 2975 of 1987 filede as Public
Interest Litigation in respect of the pollution of Hussainsagar
Lake in Hyderabad [reported in AIR 1996(3) An. W.R. 253]. His
Lordship Justice D. H. Nasir, after elaborate discussion,
disposed it off giving various directions to the Andhra Pradesh
Pollution Control Board, the Sewerage Board and the
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, prescribing time limit for
necessary steps to prevent pollution of waters of Hussainsagar
Lake.
In several cases, the Supreme Court went to the rescue of the
persons affected by the pollution and awarded them sufficient
compensation. Recently, the ryots, whose lands were affected
by the pollution of nakka vagu (canal) water due to discharge of
industrial effluent by the industries in Patancheru Industrial
Development Area near Hyderabad, were awarded
:
compensation to the tune of Rs. 1.39 crores (Rs. 13.9
million). As the State Government failed to control water
pollution, the Supreme Court directed it to deposit the amount
in the first instance and then to recover it from the
industrialists responsible for the pollution. Thus the Supreme
Court forced the State Government and its administrative
executive to act in accordance with the provisions of the
pollution laws.
24. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, –
(a) no person shall knowingly cause or permit any
poisonous, noxious or polluting matter determined in
accordance with such standards as may be laid down by the
State Board to enter (whether directly or indirectly) into any
stream or well or sewer or on land; or
(b) no person shall knowingly cause or permit to enter into
any stream any other matter which may tend, either directly or
in combination with similar matters, to impede the proper flow
of the water of the stream in a manner leading or likely to lead
to a substantial aggravation of pollution due to other causes or
of its consequences.
(2) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under subsection
(1), by reason only of having done or caused to be done
any of the following acts, namely:-
(a) constructing, improving or maintaining in or across or on
the bank or bed of any stream any building, bridge, weir, dam,
sluice, dock, pier, drain or sewer or other permanent works
which has a right to construct, improve or maintain;
(b) depositing any materials on the bank or in the bed of any