STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice (Acting) Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur directed Government to file Action Taken Report (ATR) on pollution checking facilities available at various districts especially Jammu and Samba having high concentration of industries.
The direction came in a Public Interest Litigation filed by Advocate Rajinder Singh Jamwal regarding poor working of State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) especially on account of lack of facility for testing the quality of air.
The petition pointed out that in the absence of pollution check at government laboratory level most of the industrial units take help from private laboratories for getting the samples tested which is in violation of law because no authenticity has been attached to such reports. The DB after hearing petitioner Advocate Rajinder Singh in person whereas Government Advocate Ahtsham Hussain Bhat appearing for the State observed that on perusal of compliance report filed by the J&K State Pollution Control Board it has been observed that the report relates only to District Kathua, whereas the inspection should have been done in all districts by respective Pollution Control Board authorities and in particular focus should be on districts where there is high concentration of industries, like Jammu and Samba. With these observations the DB directed to file Action Taken Report on next date of hearing.
