Dire need of proper regulation of banquet halls: NGT

There is an urgent need to regulate banquet halls to mitigate their adverse impact on environment and public health, the National Green Tribunal said while seeking report from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee on such units in West Delhi's Zakhira area. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said various illegal banquet halls were operating in the area without requisite statutory permissions.

"There is dire need of proper regulation of banquet halls to mitigate the adverse impact on environment and public health. Further steps are required for laying down guidelines and mechanism for assessing the adverse impact and also ensuring proper monitoring mechanism," the bench said. The tribunal's observation came while perusing an action taken report which said that an amount of about Rs 80 lakh has been recovered from 91 defaulting banquet halls in terms of inadequate parking, illegal groundwater extraction and operation without consent.

"There is no material to indicate how the compensation recovered meets the norms of 'Polluter Pays' principle in terms of extent of pollution, period of violation, cost of damage to the environment and public health and the turnover of the polluters," it said. The green panel directed the member secretary of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to submit a further action report by November 30 and sought his appearance before it on December 17.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by city resident Deepak Datta against running of illegal banquet halls. He alleged that they were running without any building plan or other required approval.