Revamp NGT south bench, NGO asks PM

In the memorandum to the Prime Minister, Shankar, Executive Director, Empower, stated that the southern bench of NGT, in Chennai, remains non-functional since October 2017, due to the lack of quorum. 

The latest WHO report had shown the dismal state of air quality in India and in such a situation, a grievance redressal mechanism is of critical importance. The government should immediately appoint judicial experts to the NGT bench to make the southern bench in Chennai functional. 

In the absence of the southern bench it is extremely time consuming and expensive for people of southern India to travel to New Delhi to approach the principal bench. The Parliament has passed the NGT Act, 2010, in view of the fact that the High Courts do not have the technical capacity to deal with complex environmental issues.

 Till the NGT is made functional the Central Government should financially support the travel and other expenditure of the litigants from Tamil Nadu who have to approach the NGT in New Delhi. The affected people cannot be expected to pay huge amounts due to inability of the government. 

The central government should also avoid giving environmental clearance or forest clearance for the projects in Tamil Nadu until the southern bench is setup once again, demanded Shankar.