“We have state boards, which are headed strangely… one lawyer is the chairman of the board, you want him to deal with complex issues, environmental clearance… You must have proper qualified people as part of these boards to ensure proper implementation because they have to discharge immense responsibilities,” he said in his address at the National Conference on Air and Water Pollution.
The event was organised by the Niti Aayog, EPIC India and University of Chicago and attended by officials of 14 state pollution control boards.
About the regulatory regime, he said that though there are enough laws in country — the air act, the biodiversity act and the environmental protection act to name a few, respect for them is lacking which is a serious matter.
“This is total failure of the regulatory advisory mechanism.
“You cannot implement environment law without providing incentive to the industry… you can’t shut them down especially in a developing country like India,” he said.
“So that a farmer knows that instead of burning he could get something out of it, maybe even Rs 10,” he added.
Praising the NGT as the only tribunal for environment in the world with such large jurisdiction and for providing affordable environment justice, he said this is a complement to India.
“I don’t think that anywhere in the world you have environmental courts and specialised tribunals of such jurisdiction.
“Probably we are the tribunal in the world that gives you (justice) in less than Rs 1,000… In a given case, a child studying in eight standard wrote us about trees being cut and dust being thrown into his school, and we took it as a case,” he said.
Justice Kumar also urged people to have respect for nature.