NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to provide details of how the over Rs 1,000-crore Environment Protection Fund (EPF), which was set up in 2008 to compensate people affected by hazardous substances, was utilised.Expressing surprise at a PIL by Gyan Prakash alleging that no compensation had been paid from the fund, a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant also asked govt and CPCB to explain how it proposes to use the corpus built over the years.Instituted under Public Liability Act, 1991, which was enacted following the Bhopal gas tragedy, the primary purpose of EPF is to offer immediate relief to victims and those injured in accidents involving hazardous substances. Prakash said there had been many incidents of oil tankers catching fire, but those who lost their lives or were injured did not get anything from the fund.The 35-year-old law requires industries producing or handling hazardous material to mandatorily obtain public liability insurance. Apart from contributions from these industries, EPF gets funds from compensation awarded by National Green Tribunal for damage caused to the environment. The court was informed that the fund has been managed by CPCB from 2024.
