Why in news?
- The Supreme Court did not interfere on 19th May with an order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
- The NGT had ordered LG Polymers to pay ₹50 crore as interim compensation for the gas leak at its Visakhapatnam plant.
- NGT also set up a five-member fact-finding committee to inquire into the incident leading to the death of several innocents.
Fact-finding committee
- The NGT, on May 8, had appointed a committee to “specifically report on the sequence of events, causes of failure and persons and authorities responsible, extent of damage to life, human and non-human, public health and environment — including water, soil and air, steps to be taken for compensation of victims and restitution of the damaged property and environment and the cost involved”.
- The NGT had also on May 8 issued formal notice to the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Union Environment Ministry, seeking their responses.
- A three-judge Bench was questioned how the NGT could take suo motu cognisance of the gas leak and form a fact-finding committee led by a former High Court judge, when the High Court was already seized of the matter.
- The Supreme Court merely told the company to raise these questions when the case came up for hearing on June 1.
Click Here to Read More about the National Green Tribunal
Click Here to read more about the Vizag Gas Leak
-Source: The Hindu
