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In Court

  • 14/07/2004

syl row rages: The Supreme Court (SC) has come down heavily on the Punjab government for its failure to construct the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal in accordance with the court's January 15, 2002, order. An SC bench, comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice P V Reddi, observed that the state's chief minister and officials had "arrogated (to) themselves the power of sitting as a super-judicial body over this court', instead of complying with the directive. The Punjab government has now decided to challenge the apex court's decision and urged the Centre to set up a new tribunal to adjudicate afresh the sharing and distribution of Ravi-Beas waters between Punjab and Haryana. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh called a special state cabinet meeting after the apex court ordered the Union government to take up the construction of Punjab's portion of SYL canal. Singh said: "The cabinet adopted a resolution asking the Centre not to publish the interim report of the Eradi Tribunal of January 31, 1987.' This report had allotted 3.5 million acre feet of the Ravi-Beas waters to Haryana.

ultimatum to polluters: The state pollution control boards (SPCBs) and pollution control centres (PCCs), which do not submit reports on implementation of the recent Supreme Court (SC) order on management of hazardous wastes, will face legal proceedings.

The SC had set a three-week deadline for closing unauthorised units across the country. But the apex court's monitoring committee, constituted to oversee the enforcement of the directive, extended the time till May 31. It set June 15 as the date for submitting compliance reports.

"If a unit is authorised to handle hazardous waste , its proper disposal has to be ensured. But several units do not do so, threatening the environment. Therefore, the SC had directed the SPCBs and PCCs to close the plants that did not seek permission by the stated deadline,' revealed a source.

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