Formulate a policy for crematoriums to ensure no pollution: Bombay HC to Maharashtra govt – Times of India

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to take help of experts so that a uniform policy for crematoriums is made and put in action, to reduce pollution from furnaces, especially given their existence in the thickly populated cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad.
A vacation bench of Justices Amjad Sayed and Girish Kulkarni passed the order while hearing via video conferencing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Pune resident expressing concerns of air pollution in the vicinity of crematoriums there given their use beyond capacity due to the rise in last rites during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The HC directed the state to nominate officials from the department of health and set up a committee to place on record the mechanism it intends to deploy in crematoriums all over the state and to come out with a final policy. In Pune, the HC directed immediate steps be taken. “Scientific processes are required to be utilised and installed especially in more populated cities,’’ said the HC.
The MPCB counsel Sharmila Deshmukh said crematoriums are not covered under the MPCB regime and agreed that its chairman could nominate experts to find technical mechanisms to arrest pollution at crematorium.
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) through its counsel Abhijit Kulkarni submitted its reply filed by an IAS officer Dr Kunal Khemnar, 36, to state that it had installed three air quality monitoring systems near Vaikunth crematorium area, its reports are online on the Maharashtra pollution control Board (MPCB) website and it has also done maintenance and cleaning of the chimneys at the crematorium regularly, the last on May 10.
PMC has already asked NEERI’s guidance for reduction of pollution and also submitted that it is not an adversarial litigation.
The HC noted that earlier the Mumbai civic body too through its special counsel Anil Sakhare had agreed to look into concerns of pollution near and due to crematoriums in the metropolis too.
The PIL petitioner a businessman Vikrat Latkar through his lawyers Ajinkya Udane and Asim Sarode said the PMC never monitored the ambient air quality at the problem areas and was “not following directions given by the National Green Tribunal.’’ The petitioner’s case is that chimneys are not adequately installed and sought joint site inspection with civic staff which Kulkarni readily agreed.
The HC will now hear the matter after four weeks by which the state and BMC are to file their replies.