NEW DELHI: SC Thursday lifted its two-year-old blanket ban on setting up of industries in Taj Trapezium Zone, a 10,400 sq km area spread over five districts in UP and one in Rajasthan, to open avenues for employment generation. The development comes a few months ahead of UP assembly polls.UP govt, through AG R Venkataramani and ASG Aishwarya Bhati told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that industrial activities, especially when it involves establishment of non-polluting industrial units, cannot be brought to a grinding halt.Seeking modification of SC’s Oct 14, 2024 order that barred establishment of any industrial unit in the TTZ area without permission of the court, the AG said, “Keeping in mind aspirations of youth and entrepreneurs, SC should have been a little more flexible when there is a cap on air pollution score of each industry which uses electricity or natural gas as fuel.”Senior advocate Aparna Bhat opposed the application, saying the TTZ authority had given arbitrary sanctions for establishment of glass industries which did not meet environmental guidelines. Senior advocate and amicus curiae Liz Mathews suggested to SC that the 410 pending applications for establishment/expansion/relocation of industries in TTZ can be processed by involving green experts from Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).The bench accepted the suggestion after the law officers said the authority is agreeable to any condition for the protection of the environment and the Taj Mahal. It said TTZ authority’s Industry Technical Evaluation Committee will involve a domain expert each from CEC and NEERI in the scrutiny of 410 applications.“We are giving veto power to the experts. The applications would be entertained by TTZ authority only after the two independent experts from CEC and NEERI concur with the non-pollution character of the industry that is sought to be established,” the bench said.It added that in case of dissent from any of the two experts, the proposal would be placed before SC for final adjudication. Even if the experts concurred on setting up of the industry, it would be placed before SC for final clearance, if amicus curiae felt that the matter required judicial scrutiny.The districts falling in the TTZ are Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras, Etah and Bharatpur.
