NEW DELHI: At a time when the threat to coastal areas from climate change is dominating headlines, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has made a scathing report against the Mumbai Port Trust’s dismal environmental record. The port does not even have the mandatory environmental management plan in place, the CAG has reported.
The report points out that the trust has failed to take adequate measures to mitigate adverse effects of sludge, slop and dirty ballast, the latter being a major reason for invasion of exotic plants and animals capable of causing serious damage to agriculture as well as natural resources. It also points out that oil sludge has been accumulating at an island in the harbour waters. The incinerator plant purchased to treat the sludge has not been working since 2002.
And while the SC hears a key case over ship-breaking in Alang, Gujarat, the CAG report reveals that the Mumbai Port Trust does not monitor ship-breaking activities despite clear directives from SC. In fact, the port authorities tried to pass on the buck by claiming to CAG that the primary responsibility of disposing hazardous waste lay with the ship-breakers and the responsibility of monitoring and disposal of waste in a safe manner rested with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. The CAG has taken the authorities to task for deflecting responsibility.
Worse still, the port has failed to even locate the sources of pollution that studies had revealed as far back as 2000 to be much higher than the permissible limit
