NGT panel to hold public hearing on Dahej factory blast that killed 10

Surat: A public hearing in connection with the blast in storage tank of a chemical unit in Dahej that killed 10 people and injured over 70 others, is scheduled on June 29 at the auditorium of GACL in Dahej.
The hearing has been called by the six-member committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) under chairmanship of retired Judge BC Patel, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.
The June 3 blast at Yashashvi Rasayan Private Limited located in Special Economic Zone (SEZ)-2 at Dahej in Bharuch district had forced evacuation of over 2,000 people from the nearby villages.
The six-member panel was constituted by the NGT while hearing a complaint filed by the Surat-based NGO, Aryavrat Foundation. It has to conduct an inquiry and submit report within a month to NGT by July 8. The NGT has also slapped Rs 25 crore penalty to the company.
The panel will examine the extent of damage to human life, public health and environment, and steps taken for compensation. The affected people have been asked to submit their queries to the district collector’s office latest by June 26.
The other members of the committee include representative of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, representative of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), head of Chemical engineering department of IIT Gandhinagar, representative of NEERI and representative from National Institute of Disaster Management, IIPA campus New Delhi.
Official sources said that the committee will hear the affected people who have lost their kin, whose properties have been damaged etc to fix the compensation amount to be paid by the company in question.
Dr MD Modiya, district collector of Bharuch said, “Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, we have requested the affected people to submit their queries to the administration in advance. The queries will be submitted to the committee.”