NEW DELHI: Acting on order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and several observations made by different courts time-to-time, the environment ministry has come out with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for dealing with cases of green violations. The measures which are to be taken against erring projects include demolition or closure of non-complying units and stiff penalties under ‘polluter pays’ principle.
The five-point SOPs, issued to different agencies including Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and state PCBs this week, also include the procedural details for identification of violation and non-compliance, and a formula to impose penalties.
Under penalty provisions, the new project which has not yet commenced its operations will have to pay 1% of total project cost as penalty for violation while the erring projects where operations have already commenced would have to additionally pay 0.25% of total turnover during the period of violation.