NGT sets 3-month deadline to shut polluting industries across India

The National Green Tribunal has directed the Central Pollution Control Board, CPCB, to shut down polluting industries coming under "critically polluted" and "severely polluted" areas within three months.

On the basis of a study jointly carried out by the CPCB and state pollution control boards in 2009-10, industrial clusters were notified as Polluted Industrial Areas (PIAs) and they were ranked depending upon the Comprehensive Environmental



Pollution Index scores.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the CPCB to assess, in coordination with the state pollution control boards, the quantum of compensation to be recovered from polluting units for the period of last five years, taking into account the cost of restoration and cost of damage to the public health and environment and the deterrence element.