Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding safety measures to be followed at power plants, 18/01/2023
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In re : News item published in The Hindu dated 23.12.2022 titled “One killed, four injured in fire at NLC Thermal Plant” dated 18/01/2023.
The bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Sudhir Agarwal of the NGT said that "it is disheartening to note that such incident has been repeated due to negligence on the part of the management, which calls for serious soul-searching at local level of management as well as stringent remedial action at higher level in the establishment."
M/s NLC India Ltd. Cuddalore was directed by the NGT, January 18 to take stringent remedial measures to ensure that acts of negligence on the part of the management of the company does not lead to any accidents in future. A report has to be submitted to the Chief Secretary, Tamil Nadu mentioning the remedial measures within one month "to enable review in respect of compliance of safety norms in such establishments".
The report should also be sent to Ministries of Environment, Coal and Power in the Central Government for necessary policy review. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) was asked by the court to consider measures to prevent such failures in similar establishments and incorporate appropriate conditions while granting environment clearance (EC) to such plants, apart from requisite supplementary condition in the already granted ECs for the power plants. The Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Power need to take necessary measures to prevent such incidents in future including modernization of power plants as earlier directed, the order added.