delhi

Updated: Nov 26, 2016 00:13 IST

The National Green Tribunal on Friday slapped a Rs 5,000 fine on the Centre for its failure to file an inspection report on a plea of a retired army officer, who alleged that aircraft dumped human excreta over residential areas near the IGI airport.

A bench headed by justice UD Salvi took exception to the delay in filing of the analysis report despite its specific direction and imposed the fine on the Union environment ministry and the ministry of civil aviation.

The direction came on the plea of Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya who sought criminal proceedings against commercial airlines and a levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents, terming the act as violation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Read | Delhi: Retd army man says human excreta falling from planes littering terrace

While issuing notice to the ministries of environment and forests and civil aviation and others, the green panel had asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to depute a senior environmental engineer to inspect his house and check the human excreta on the walls.

It asked the CPCB to collect excreta samples, if found, for analysis. The report has to be submitted to the tribunal.

Dahiya alleged that despite the NGT’s direction of inspection and analysis of excreta in two weeks, the officials visited his house just two days before the hearing. He asked the bench not to grant time to the respondents and asked for heavy fines for them.

The matter is listed for next hearing on December 20.

In his petition, Vasant Enclave resident Dahiya had pleaded for a 24-hour helpline for immediate reporting of such incidents and a monitoring mechanism to check that no aircraft drops “human soil or excreta” while landing.