Taking a serious view of the lapse on part of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) officials, which led to the functioning of a cement mixing unit for several months without any permission in Madurai district, the Madras high court on Thursday directed the chairman of TNPCB to appear before it.

TNPCB chief summoned in illegal cement mixing unit case
TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04:08 IST
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Madurai: Taking a serious view of the lapse on part of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) officials, which led to the functioning of a cement mixing unit for several months without any permission in Madurai district, the Madras high court on Thursday directed the chairman of TNPCB to appear before it.
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The court was hearing a petition filed by Thomas, who sought to close the unit. Since the Madurai district collector who had powers to close down the unit including the disconnection of electricity supply had not taken any steps, the court during an earlier hearing had directed him to appear before the court through video conferencing. Pursuant to the direction, the collector appeared before the court on Thursday. The additional advocate general K Chellapandian submitted that the electricity connection was cut off and the unit was completely dismantled. A division bench observed that a perusal of the status report submitted by the Madurai district environmental engineer of TNPCB says that the unit has been functioning from September 2019 and the permission sought for functioning of the unit was rejected by the TNPCB in November 2019. The judges said that the report also says that when the TNPCB officials inspected the unit on August 19, they found that it was functioning, after which they had taken action. The judges observed that if at all the district environmental engineer had taken follow up action, the unit would not have functioned for several months without any permission. The judges observed that due to the deliberate lapse on part of the district environmental engineer his insensitivity towards pollution caused by the unit, it was functioning even after permission was rejected. Hence, the judges directed the chairman of TNPCB and the Madurai district environmental engineer to appear before the court through video conferencing to assist the court .TNN

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Empower police to prevent wildlife crimes, says plea in HC
TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04:05 IST
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Madurai: The Madras high court on Thursday ordered notice to the central and state governments on a plea which sought to empower police officials to also prevent wildlife crimes in the state.
A division bench of justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam ordered notice on the public interest litigation filed by K Pushpavanam, a law student from Madurai.
The petitioner stated that though the forest officials are taking steps to prevent poaching activities in the state, they are unable to tackle the same due to lack of sufficient manpower. He stated that forest and police officials should work together in order to prevent such crimes.
Rajamanickam stated that the Supreme Court in a verdict had held that police officials are empowered to investigate and take action in incidents of wildlife crimes under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
In an attempt to tackle poaching activities, states such as Karnataka and Assam have authorised the police to take action in connection with offences under the Act. However, in Tamil Nadu only the official at the rank of forest ranger is empowered to take cognizance of the offences, due to which several offences go unnoticed.
Hence, the petitioner moved the high court Madurai bench seeking for a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to notify that police officers could also take steps to prevent, detect and file complaints under the Act. He also sought to constitute a special wing at district and state level to prevent poaching activities in the state.
The case was adjourned to October 7 for further hearing.
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