The court established that consistent non-compliance with pollution discharge standards necessitates compensation for affected farmers, and a structured remediation approach must be adopted.

ORDER

1. We are passing this order in continuation to the earlier orders dated 01.09.2023, 20.11.2023, 05.02.2024, 22.04.2024, 20.08.2024 and 01.10.2024.

2. This application has been filed with the averments that Respondent No.1- M/s. Twenty-One Sakhar Karkhana Unit No.3 has discharged its highly polluted effluent and pollutants outside of its industry, in violation of the consent conditions, without providing adequate and suitable treatment and disposal arrangements, thereby causing serious pollution in the nearby agricultural land, environment and streams, which is harmful to the health and safety of the surrounding people and nearby farmers. Hence, it is prayed that Respondent No.1-M/s. Twenty-One Sakhar Karkhana Unit No.3 may not be granted crushing permission without its taking care of pollution; Respondent No.4- District Collector, Nanded may be directed not to grant any Environmental Clearance without an opportunity of hearing being given to the applicants and nearby farmers; Respondent No.3- MPCB may be directed to initiate action for violation of consent conditions, as the discharge of highly polluted effluent is being done outside the industry of Respondent No.1 and air pollutants are also emitting out of it, in violation of consent conditions; Joint Committee may be constituted to prepare remedial action plan to take restoration measures by Respondent No.1; and the affected farmers and villagers may be reimbursed with imposition of cost and damages by Respondent No.1, etc.

3. This matter was initially considered by this Tribunal on 01.09.2023 and notices were issued to the Respondents and also a Joint Committee was constituted. In compliance with the said order, Joint Committee has submitted its report, relevant part of which is quoted herein below:-

“5.0 Observations and findings

This report is outcome containing factual and action taken report of the said joint committee based on the preliminary information received from MPCB, followed by inspection & physical observations made in the industry and analysis results of environmental samples (effluent, source emission, soil quality, surface & ground water quality and ambient air quality) and information submitted by the industry through MPCB and subsequent discussions of the joint committee. The observations & findings of the joint committee are discussed as follows:

i. As per the daily manufacturing report submitted by the industry for the present crushing season, 2023-24; cane crushing activities started w.e.f. 01/11/2023 and avg. cane crushed during November, 2023 is 1,620 TCD (min: 1,132 TCD & max: 3,350 TCD) against consented quantity of 2,500 TCD. Similarly, avg. cane crushed during December (up to date of joint committee inspection) is 2,012 TCD (min: 288 TCD & max: 2,743 TCD) against consented quantity of 2,500 TCD. Whereas, on few occasion, the maximum cane crushed per day varied from 2,743 to 3,350 TCD, which is more than per day consented capacity of 2,500 TCD.

ii. The joint committee collected and analysed OCEMS (effluent) data during the last crushing season w.e.f. 16/11/2022 to 05/03/2023, which is being transmitted to MPCB & CPCB servers. Based on the data analysis i.e. every 15 minutes‟ data, it is observed that the total data availability of installed OCEMS (effluent) sensors (parameters: pH, TSS, BOD, COD & flow) on the MPCB & CPCB servers during the aforesaid period is only 44.69%. Further, during the aforesaid period; aggregated per day data availability of installed OCEMS (effluent) sensors (parameters: pH, TSS, BOD, COD & flow) on the MPCB & CPCB servers is only 52.29% i.e. 57 entries of aggregated per day data out of total 109 entries. Out of the available 57 aggregated entries of per day data, the industry was found non-complied for 7 times f