Smart Regulation of Antibiotic Use in India Blog: Regulation of pharmaceutical effluents in the State of Telangana, India
Tue 17 September 2019
According to a news report of 28 August 2018, the Telangana Pollution Control Board (TPCB) ordered the closure of three polluting pharmaceutical firms in the Polepally Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Jadcherla Mandal of Mahbubnagar district in the State of Telangana (formerly State of Andhra Pradesh). The trigger for action is a direction issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Principal Bench, New Delhi.
The facts of the case are:
In 2018, Kosgi Venkataiah, a farmer from Mudireddypally village under Rajapur Mandal in Mahbubnagar district, filed a petition in the NGT concerning the pollution in open lands near the Polepally SEZ. Some of the petitioner’s submissions were:
- The illegal release of industrial wastewater by pharmaceutical companies in Polepally is affecting the integrity of the groundwater, ponds and air.
- Industrial activity is adversely affecting the ecosystem and the overall ecology of the area and the pollution is seriously affecting the villagers.
- The TPCB and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) are not taking adequate action to stop the pollution.
The timeline of events that followed is set out below:
10 May 2018: The NGT issued notices to the TPCB, pharmaceutical companies such as Aurobindo, Hetero and others and the MoEFCC, directing them to explain their stand.[1]
16 July 2018: The NGT issued an order directing the TPCB to complete the action initiated by it against the pharmaceutical firms situated in the SEZ and take it to logical conclusion in two weeks (Kosgi Venkataiah v Union of India and Others OA No. 165 of 2018).
15 April 2019: The NGT acted on a letter sent by the applicant’s lawyer and issued an order directing the TPCB to look into the matter, take appropriate action in accordance with law and furnish a factual and action taken report within two months by e-mail (Sarvan Kumar, Advocate v State of Telangana OA No. 189 of 2019).
8 August 2019: The TPCB issued closure notices to nine pharmaceutical firms operating in the SEZ. The electricity department officials cut off power to two firms.[2]
28 August 2019: The TPCB issued shutdown notices to three of the nine polluting firms. In addition, the District Collector of Mahbubnagar constituted a committee (comprising of officials from the agriculture, revenue, TPCB, Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and ground water departments) to look into the extent of industrial pollution in the pharma SEZ. The committee has started collecting land, water and air samples in the surrounding areas of the SEZ and sent them for further analysis to study the impact of pollutants.[3]
This sequence of events shows that:
(a) pollution-related laws exist and can be applied by statutory authorities such as state pollution control boards to punish pharmaceutical firms that are responsible for causing pollution in violation of statutory provisions;
(b) members of the public can resort to judicial mechanisms such as the NGT to seek discharge of duties by statutory authorities in case of non-enforcement or poor enforcement;
(c) the NGT can direct statutory authorities to enforce the law in a time-bound manner and monitor implementation of its directions; and
(d) the statutory authorities can be compelled to act notwithstanding internal or external factors that might have previously restricted/prevented them.
[1] ‘Jadcherla pollution: Pharma giants put on notice’ Deccan Chronicle (11 May 2018).
[2] A Raju, ‘Closure notices to pharma firms served for flouting pollution control norms in Mahbubnagar’ The Hans India (8 August 2019).
[3] ‘TSPCB issues shut down notices to 3 polluting pharma firms at Jadcherla SEZ’ Pharmabiz (28 August 2019).