KOLKATA: The principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday slapped a Rs 5 crore penalty on the state for its failure to comply with orders to improve the air quality of Kolkata and Howrah . The lapses, the tribunal ruled, have put citizens’ health in peril.The environmental compensation, levied under ‘polluters pay’ principal as prescribed under Section 20 of NGT Act, has to be paid to the Central Pollution Control Board ( CPCB ) within two weeks, failing which the amount will go up by Rs 1 crore for each month’s delay.“We are of the view that the state cannot continue with non-compliance for which environmental compensation of Rs 5 crore is imposed,” the tribunal noted, before emphatically observing that all officials responsible for non-compliance should be put behind bars.This comes a day after the Supreme Court told the CPCB to take steps to prosecute government officials, who fail to take action against polluters. It prescribed that such officials and agencies be prosecuted under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act, which provides for up to five years in jail.The NGT’s eastern zone bench had earlier asked the state to take measures to check auto emission, which is responsible for over a third of the city’s air pollution. Among the measures laid out were phasing-out of old vehicles and enforcement of stringent measures like ‘no PUC-no fuel’, more intense checks on emission compliance and deployment of more remote sensing devices to check emission of vehicles on the go.‘Air quality of Kolkata, Howrah dangerous’The tribunal had also directed the state to explore better mechanism for conversion of commercial vehicles from traditional fuel (petrol/diesel) to CNG apart from issuing orders on controlling of road and construction dust as well as burning of waste.Though Kolkata’s ambient air quality has been worse than Delhi so far this winter, the government, civic officials and state pollution control board have failed to announce any administrative steps like the Delhi government, which had enforced the odd-even measures last winter allowing vehicles with odd and even registration numbers to ply on alternate days to drastically reduce emission. Schools were also shut down to protect children from exposure to the toxic air.“The air quality of Kolkata and Howrah has become very dangerous and highly polluting. Almost 28 months after several directives on auto emission, road dirt, construction industry and burning of waste, the state is yet to take any positive steps... Air pollution is the primary responsibility of the state PCB. But it is silent...,” said the bench comprising judicial members Adarsh Goel and SP Wangdi and nonjudicial member Nagin Nanda.“We observe that even the Supreme Court is seized of the issue. The SC has ordered introduction of Bharat Stage-VI emission standard and has grounded 40 lakh old vehicles in Delhi... the state has not taken any effective measures in Kolkata. We have repeatedly placed orders for the state to comply with our directives and file better directives but it has failed,” it noted.The bench observed its orders to introduce remote sensing devices to check emission of vehicles as they plied on the road, as opposed to pollution checks of stationary vehicles, were not heeded.The transport department additional chief secretary had assured the bench that steps were being taken, the NGT principal bench observed no steps had been taken on air pollution. Even its query on how many vehicles were registered had been answered with the transport department and police putting the ball in the others’ court.