Disposal of fly ash in an environment friendly manner: NGT passes order
Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Ram Awtar Agrawal Vs State of Chhattisgarh & Others dated 19/09/2022.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT), September 19, 2022 directed that awareness programmes need to be organized for common people in Chhattisgarh regarding utilization of fly ash for its own use and make the process for obtaining the permission/NOC from regulatory authority easier.
If any complaint regarding illegal disposal is received by the authorities then strict action should be taken according to rules including penal action on transporters. The state authority must instruct all transporters for compliance of the guidelines issued by the Central government and state government for safe transportation of fly ash and bottom ash. Every fly ash transporter must write on their vehicles ‘If seen any illegal dumping of fly ash by this vehicle please inform to Collector’. The contact number of the transporter should be visible clearly. In this regard an official letter may be issued to all industries, the NGT order said.
The bench of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh, of the NGT (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) said that there is an urgent need to augment the utilization and disposal of fly ash in the state of Chhattisgarh. The state government must fix responsibility and may ask all power plants of the area as to how they would address this issue. To promote off take of dry fly ash, the concerned Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) of Korba should address the problem of transportation of fly ash in bulk quantity to potential users in an economical and environment friendly manner.