Are you anti-public, Telangana HC fumes at PCB

 HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court lashed out at Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) for its typical behaviour in not taking action against violators of the environment and failing to comply with court orders.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, wanted to know if the PCB was working for the public or if it was anti-public.

The court took serious exception to PCB functioning while dealing with various petitions in the last two days. One of the petitions is related to conducting a public hearing on granting environmental clearance for expansion of My Home Industries, a cement firm at Mellacheruvu gram panchayat in Suryapet district.

In this regard, the PCB issued three notices on July 27 about a public hearing on Thursday in Chowtapalli village at three different hours on Thursday. Challenging the same, some villagers approached the High Court complaining that the lands allotted to My Home group for mining of limestone were in question and the conduct of public hearing is not correct. Apart from that, they also complained that the PCB was holding three public hearings on the same issue.

After hearing the contentions of both sides, the court opined that three applications submitted by My Home Industries seeking environment clearance cannot be treated as three different projects.

It directed the board to start the public hearing at 10.30 am on Thursday and continue with the second and third public hearings in pursuance of second and third notices as well. Further, it directed the PCB to videograph the proceedings of the public hearing and to produce the same for perusal of the court along with an affidavit describing details of public hearing. It directed My Home Industries to file a counter affidavit within four weeks.