Rajasthan High Court Directs Authorities To Look Into Complaint Against Alleged Contamination Of 'Railmagra Dam' By Hindustan Zinc Ltd.

A division bench of Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani and Justice Sandeep Mehta directed that the authorities shall be served a copy of the writ petition in the form of a representation. These authorities include Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur; the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, Jaipur and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rajsamand.

The bench further ruled, "Upon receiving the same, these authorities shall objectively examine the petitioners' grievances and pass a reasoned order/ take appropriate action thereupon, within a period of two months from the date of submission thereof."

The court, while disposing the plea, observed that in case the grievance of the petitioners still survives thereafter, they shall be at liberty to take recourse to the suitable remedy for ventilating the same.

Background

In the present matter, the petitioners have approached by way of this writ petition raising a grievance that owing to the industrial activities being undertaken by the respondent- M/s Hindustan Zinc Limited, liquid effluents are being discharged into the Railmagra Dam.

As per the petitioners, the toxic quality of the effluent so discharged is adversely affecting the ground water resources as well as the quality of water of the dam which is being used by the public at large.

The petitioners claim to have got the water samples tested scientifically where their fears of chemical contamination in water bodies because of the effluents being discharged by the respondent were confirmed.

It was claimed that though several representation were made to various authorities, however, no response was given on this issue adversely affecting public health.

Case Title: Bhagwati Prasad v.  The Principal Secretary, Department Of Mines And Geology and Ors.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Raj) 26

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