Telangana HC Orders Demolition Of 195 Polluting Plastic Units In Hyderabad

While ordering immediate demolition of 195 polluting plastic units in the Katedan area of Hyderabad, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday also asked authorities to take action against officials who turned a blind eye all these years.

“With air and groundwater pollution reaching alarming proportions and the number of cancer and asthma patients on the rise, Hyderabad is all set to attain the dubious distinction of crossing Delhi,” said Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan while hearing a PIL against GHMC, pollution control board, and power distribution companies for doing precious little to stop these illegal units from mushrooming.

The bench of Justice Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy said the sooner these units were closed, the better it would be for Hyderabad.

“The deputy commissioner himself filed a false affidavit before us saying that there were only three pollutant plastic industries in the area,” said Dr. Chauhan. “Later when the high court got the matter verified by member secretary G V Subramanyam of state legal services authority, he said that there were, in fact, a huge number of illegal plastic industries,” he said.

Later the deputy commissioner filed another affidavit admitting the presence of a huge number of polluting industries.

“Either the state or the polluting industries must pay compensation to the victims of pollution,” the CJ said.

GHMC commissioner Lokesh Kumar along with deputy commissioner D Pradip Kumar was present in the court under orders of court after the PIL filed by Vinay Palnitkar and MA Rasheed was admitted for hearing.

During the hearing, the commissioner made a candid admission that the GHMC did nothing in the last eight years to close these industries even though it concluded in 2012 itself that as many as 195 unauthorized plastic industries deserved to be closed.

“We issued closure notices to all of them and law mandates that they should be given a month’s time to get out of the area,” Lokesh Kumar said in court.

Appreciating the commissioner for admitting GHMC lapses honestly, the HC gave him the green signal to go ahead with his job of closing down the pollutant industries.

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