Staying near refineries can pose health, security risks: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court on Monday said making people stay in the heavily polluted air of Mumbai's Mahul area not only poses health risks to them but also threatens the security of the refineries located in the vicinity. A division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre said the Maharashtra government cannot force any person to stay at a residential colony in Mahul.

The bench was hearing applications of a group of people who are part of the around 15,000 families displaced following demolition of their "unauthorized" houses on the Tansa pipeline that runs across several parts of the city. The demolition was ordered by the high court last year.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had shifted the displaced people to a housing colony in Mahul, a polluted area where refineries and chemical units are located. However, several families refused to move claiming that the air quality there was very poor and posed health risks.

Relying on an April 2019 order passed by another bench of the high court, the bench led by Chief Justice Nandrajog on Monday said the government will have to either accommodate the displaced persons elsewhere or give them Rs 15,000 each month as rent so that they can find their own accommodation. "It is evident that residential premises in the vicinity of such refineries can pose multi-faceted risks, which are not only restricted to the health of residents nearby but also security risk by way of a terrorist attack using these refineries as targets," the bench said on Monday.

Such a terrorist attack would lead to colossal destruction within Mumbai city, it said. The bench relied on an order passed by the National Green Tribunal in December 2015, stating that the presence of volatile organic compounds in Mahul makes the air polluted in the region and therefore harmful for human health.

"We have perused reports prepared by three government agencies - the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, the Central Pollution Control Board and NEERI - which show that the air pollution in Mahul continues to be disturbingly high and to this day, poses threat to human life," the court said. Around 200 of the 15,000 affected families have shifted to Mahul so far but the court ordered that the government and the BMC shall not shift any more persons there and should inform those who have already shifted that they can opt to leave the place.

After the bench passed its order, the BMC sought a stay so on it that it could approach the Supreme Court. The bench, however, refused to grant the stay.