Your conduct makes it hard for us to trust you: NGT raps Central Pollution Control Board

The National Green Tribunal today slammed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) over inspection of paper units in Uttar Pradesh, saying its conduct made it difficult to trust the pollution monitoring body.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar there was patent deficiency in the CPCB report and rapped the agency for abusing its power.

"Are you sure these reports are correct? Have you gone through them? It is surprising that the biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand are below detectable limits. Bringing the levels from over 5,000 to negligible limits is a wonder. People are not foolish. Your conduct is making it difficult even for us to believe you," the bench observed.

The NGT also formed a committee comprising officials from the CPCB, UPPCB and a representative from the Ministry of the Environment and Forests and directed it to conduct fresh inspection of these paper units within a week and submit comprehensive report.

Perusing a report filed by CPCB and the UP pollution control board (UPPCB) after joint inspection of paper units in Muzaffarnagar, the tribunal said the findings did not aspire confidence as it denied scientific reasoning.

The report is not even signed by a team member of the pollution monitoring body, raising doubts over the findings, it said.

Irked over the CPCB's approach, the bench directed the member secretary of the apex pollution monitoring body to take strict action against officials who had conducted the inspection.