New Delhi, Sep 2: The Supreme Court on Thursday ousted Assam Chief Secretary and Oil India Ltd’s managing director from a 10-member panel
set up by NGT and substituted it with a five-member committee for suggesting remedial action after assessing the environmental damage caused by a major fire in Assam’s Baghjan oil well of the PSU last year.
The top court said new committee would be chaired by Justice BP Katakey, former judge of the Gauhati High Court. The 10-member panel was constituted by the National Green Tribunal with Assam Chief Secretary as its chairman and OIL’s managing director as member.
The Baghjan pipe oil well had caught fire and caused extensive damage to flora and fauna in the area. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and Hima Kohli which directed the public sector undertaking OIL to deposit Rs 50 lakh for the expenses of the newly constituted panel, said the committee shall submit its interim report after making interim assessment of the damages to the biodiversity and environment, so that adequate remedial measures could be taken at the earliest.
It said that the Green panel has directed that the Chief Secretary of Assam would be the chairperson of the 10-member committee but considering the onerous responsibility which are entrusted to the office of Chief Secretary, “we are of the view that it would not be appropriate to task the chief secretary personally in taking up this task, which is more or less of adjudicatory nature combining expert domain knowledge of issues pertaining to environmental concerns”. (PTI)
