HC grants interim stay for 8 weeks and directs the district collector, corporation secretary to apprise it of situation on 2 May.
The Kerala High Court. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Kerala High Court, on Tuesday, 11 April, granted an interim stay on the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order imposing a fine of ₹100 crore on the Kochi Corporation over the Brahmapuram waste plant fire.
The high court granted an interim stay for eight weeks and directed the district collector and the corporation secretary to apprise it of the situation on 2 May.
The court said it would continue monitoring the situation at Brahmapuram. The case will be heard next on 23 May.
On 19 March, the NGT had fined the Kochi Municipal Corporation ₹100 crore for its continuing neglect of the Brahmapuram solid waste plant fire.
In a scathing report, NGT pulled up the city corporation for long-continuing neglect of its duties and asked the Kerala chief secretary to fix the accountability of officers concerned for the gross failure.
The green tribunal also observed that the state of Kerala and the authorities concerned had been an “utter failure” and “rampantly violated the solid waste management rules”.
The NGT was hearing about the blaze on which it had initiated a suo motu case based on media reports on the environmental emergency the fire had caused.
Responding to the fine, the Kochi Corporation mayor said the tribunal had not heard the issue in detail.
“I was hoping that the NGT will hear our response, but last night an order came charging us with a fine of ₹100 crore. It is impractical for us to deposit ₹100 crore at this moment. We will consult legal experts,” Mayor M Anilkumar had said.
The Brahmapuram waste plant caught fire on 2 March and the authorities were able to extinguish it only on 14 March. The port city of Kochi was blanketed in toxic smoke due to the fire during that time.
On 26 March, another fire broke out again at the waste treatment plant.
The police said eight fire tenders had been pressed into service to douse the fire, which was detected at sector seven inside the plant.
(With PTI inputs)
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