NEWS

In the next few months, at least some railway stations will start looking cleaner, thanks to directions from the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to the raliways ministry. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also been directed to carry out a fresh performance audit on or before June 30. To begin with, the change will be noticed in some major stations in Bengal — Howrah, Sealdah and Kharagpur. While hearing the matter at an earlier date, the NGT went through a past report of the CAG that pointed to unsatisfactory handling of waste generated and dumped on railway tracks and open defecation on tracks that lead to unhygienic conditions and health hazards. Based on the findings of the CAG and the Central Pollution Control Board, the NGT had directed the railways to frame an action plan to clean up stations and railway premises. The railways was also directed to constitute a Special Task Force to remove encroachers and go on afforestation and plantation drives in association with respective state governments. While the action plan has been prepared, the bench comprising NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, justices S P Wangdi and K Ramakrishnan and expert member Nagin Nanda, during the last hearing, issued certain directions that have to be followed. The railways will have to fix a target to achieve standard ‘14001’ of the BIS for Environment Management System for certain stations.