Won the legal battle but justice was at a huge cost says petitioner. The case took a decade to fight forcing petitioners to mortgage their valuables and land to fight
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Mumbai: Residents of Mahul, Ambapada and Chembur area have recently won a long drawn, hard fought legal battle against pollution in their Mahul area. But in this long battle, the petitioners spent their entire lives hard earned money. The petitioners fought this long drawn battle raising money by mortgaging their house and land. Although they were legally victorious, the legal battle has literally left them broke.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) held Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Sea Lord Container Limited and Aegis Logistics Limited responsible for the pollution in Mahul, Ambapada and Chembur areas and imposed a fine of Rs 286.2 crore on them.
There is a lot of pollution in this area. Although the growing number of vehicles is causing pollution, the arbitration has clarified that the pollution is being caused by these four companies. The tribunal has ordered HPCL to pay Rs 76.5 crore, BPCL Rs 67.5 crore, Aegis Rs 142 crore and SLCL Rs 0.2 crore.
Charudatta Pandurang Koli, Mohan Laxman Mhatre, Dattaram Laxman Koli and Dayaram Mahulkar are the four residents who had filed the petition and fought this battle at their own expense. Although the result was in their favor, they did not get any compensation. Some of them spent their savings, some of them mortgaged their houses and some of them raised money by borrowing money, said petitioner Dayaram Mahulkar.
During this long fight they had received Rs 15 lakh during the battle but the money has already been spent in the legal battle. “After the verdict, the Tribunal was expected to order us to pay compensation, but this did not happen,” Mahulkar said. “We have sought compensation from the arbitrator,” he said
The fight against pollution began in 2010. Then in 2014 a petition was filed with the National Green Tribunal.
“After 10 years of struggle, we got the decision but justice was still not done. However, it cost about Rs 6 crore, so we have asked the NGT to pay Rs 1.5 crore each to the four petitioners,” said Devaram Mahulkar, son of petitioner Dayaram Mahulkar.
Justice AK Goyal, chairman of the National Green Tribune, ordered for setting up of a 10-member committee to look into the matter. He further said that the committee would work out a plan to change the situation. The committee will consist of two senior members from Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, District Magistrate, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) Mumbai, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Mumbai), representatives from King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) Mumbai and one member from State Health Department.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board will act as the nodal agency in this regard. As the problem of pollution persists, this committee needs to take immediate action. He further said that the work of laying the underground pipeline of Sea Lord Container Limited Company is underway. He said 140 residents who had been fighting against the work had also been arrested.
The area was surveyed in 2014 by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. The survey report also suggested that most of these companies are causing a lot of pollution. It was also mentioned that the pollution caused nose, eye and throat problems to the residents of Mahul. According to the KEM Hospital, 67.1 per cent of the residents were diagnosed with respiratory diseases, 86.6 percent with eye diseases and 84.5 percent with skin diseases.By Vikas Nag
