Latest news with #PushpaSathyanarayana
New Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
NGT takes cognisance of illegal beach buildings on Tamil Nadu's Karikattukuppam beach
CHENNAI: The Southern Bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken suo motu cognisance of illegal building constructions violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules at Old Karikattukuppam beach in Chengalpattu. The tribunal issued notices to departments concerned, seeking an action taken report by June 17. Based on a report by TNIE, the bench, comprising judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member K Satyagopal, sharply criticised the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNSCZMA) for failing to exercise its authority under the CRZ Notification and Environment Protection Act to curb these unauthorised constructions. Justice Sathyanarayana noted the NGT's Western Bench had ordered demolitions in a similar case. Satyagopal pointed out that the coastal management authority's current member secretary, AR Rahul Nadh, had previously served as Chengalpattu collector, where CRZ violations have persisted for years without meaningful action. In April, TNIE reported how land sharks were encroaching upon Chengalpattu's beaches, prompting the Mamallapuram Local Planning Authority to issue notices confirming CRZ violations. These notices mandated restoration of the site to its original state through demolition or alteration within 15 days of receipt. Non-compliance would lead to authorities undertaking demolition, with costs recovered from property owners, and the premises could be locked and sealed. The notices also required halting the use of the buildings within the same period.
New Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
NGT takes cognisance of illegal beach buildings on Tamil Nadu's c
CHENNAI: The Southern Bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken suo motu cognisance of illegal building constructions violating Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules at Old Karikattukuppam beach in Chengalpattu. The tribunal issued notices to departments concerned, seeking an action taken report by June 17. Based on a report by TNIE, the bench, comprising judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member K Satyagopal, sharply criticised the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNSCZMA) for failing to exercise its authority under the CRZ Notification and Environment Protection Act to curb these unauthorised constructions. Justice Sathyanarayana noted the NGT's Western Bench had ordered demolitions in a similar case. Satyagopal pointed out that the coastal management authority's current member secretary, AR Rahul Nadh, had previously served as Chengalpattu collector, where CRZ violations have persisted for years without meaningful action. In April, TNIE reported how land sharks were encroaching upon Chengalpattu's beaches, prompting the Mamallapuram Local Planning Authority to issue notices confirming CRZ violations. These notices mandated restoration of the site to its original state through demolition or alteration within 15 days of receipt. Non-compliance would lead to authorities undertaking demolition, with costs recovered from property owners, and the premises could be locked and sealed. The notices also required halting the use of the buildings within the same period.
New Indian Express
30-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Thermal plants can't change coal source sans green nod: NGT
CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has quashed key office memorandums (OMs) issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which had allowed thermal power plants to change their coal sources without obtaining a fresh environmental clearance. The bench, comprising judicial member Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member K Satyagopal, observed that OMs created de facto exemptions from statutory requirements and were issued without public consultation or scientific assessment. 'The OMs are issued without any scientific study or in fact assessment. The legal character of the OMs is administrative but their effect is legislative, creating de facto exemptions from legal mandates,' the bench stated. The tribunal found the exemptions inconsistent with Regulation 7(2) of the EIA Notification, 2006, which mandates prior environmental clearance if any change in raw material mix leads to increased pollution load. It warned that allowing unchecked transitions between coal sources, especially from imported to domestic coal or vice versa, could raise emission. The ministry defended the move as a procedural streamlining effort to promote domestic coal, but the NGT ruled that environmental concerns must not be compromised for operational flexibility.
The Hindu
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
MoEFCC cannot rewrite environmental law through office memoranda, says NGT
The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal has annulled several environmental office memorandums (OMs) issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) related to fuel source change in thermal plants. The order, delivered by Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana on April 28, found these guidelines to be inconsistent with the principle of legality and raised concerns over the excessive reliance on subordinate legislation, which bypasses necessary parliamentary oversight. The judgment was delivered in response to a petition filed by K. Saravanan, a resident of Chennai, who argued that the OMs diluted statutory safeguards under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, by exempting thermal plants from reassessing environmental impact despite significant changes in coal quality and emissions. The guidelines, issued by MoEFCC on November 11, 2020, December 6, 2023, and January 7, 2025, were criticised for creating a blanket exemption from Environmental Clearance requirements for a variety of fuel source changes including cases of blending, domestic and imported coal so long as the blend falls within the specified threshold. The bench found that this method of issuing executive orders without proper legislative oversight was inconsistent with the democratic principle that laws should be clear, publicly accessible, and properly debated. 'Permission to change the fuel source without amendment of EC can amount to submission of false information or suppression of information since the character of pollution as well as quantum of pollution load varies with the source of coal and combination of domestic & imported coal. It is to be noted that shifting to domestic coal will result in higher loads of fly ash generation ,' the bench noted. The bench observed that although the fly ash notifications — amended multiple times between 1999 and 2022 — require thermal power plants to achieve 100% ash utilisation within three to five years and impose penalties for non-compliance, recent OMs have significantly diluted these environmental standards. 'The present case is the classic example to revisit the structural issue in India's environmental governance and its over-reliance on subordinate legislation and executive instructions,' the order stated.
