SC asks Pollution Board to prosecute officials who didn’t act on complaints

The Supreme Court asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to initiate prosecution against government officials who have not acted on nearly 250 complaints received on its official social media accounts with regard to pollution in Delhi.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that officials who have failed to act on the complaints were required to be prosecuted.

"Why do not you prosecute these officials? You should prosecute them. Let these people realise what they have done," the bench told Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, who was appearing for the CPCB.

Nadkarni said from November 1 to November 22 this year, they had received 749 air pollution complaints on social media accounts and action was taken on around 500 such complaints.

Regarding court's suggestion to prosecute the officials responsible for not acting on the complaints, he said that the CPCB would look into it.

The CPCB had on November 1 told the apex court that it has created social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook where citizens could lodge their complaints about pollution in Delhi-national capital region (NCR).

The top court is seized of matters in which several issues related to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR have been raised.

The CPCB had last month opened social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook for registering complaints about environmental pollution.

Meanwhile, the court was informed that nearly 21,000 industrial units operating from non-conforming areas or residential areas had been closed with their power and water connection turned off.

The court was also informed that another nearly 30,000 such units were there and an eight-week time was sought to shut them down and remove them from non-conforming areas.

Allowing the plea for time, court directed the next listing of the matter in January.