Brahmapuram fire: Kerala HC stays fine imposed on Kochi Corporation by National Green Tribunal

The court directed the District Collector and the Corporation Secretary to submit a status report on May 2.   

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday temporarily stayed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order imposing a fine of Rs 100 crore on the Kochi Corporation for eight weeks. The court directed the District Collector and the Corporation Secretary to submit a status report on May 2. 

The High Court will hear the case again on May 23. 

The NGT had slapped Rs 100 crore fine on the Kochi Municipal Corporation in compensation for their alleged negligence in their duties, which resulted in a fire at Brahmapuram, a waste dump site in Kochi.

The NGT based its decision on a media report which stated that on March 2, 2023, a fire occurred at the waste dump site in Kochi, causing severe air pollution and a public health crisis.

It is reportedly said that the Kochi Municipal Corporation had neglected their duties for a long time, leading to this incident, and ordered them to pay compensation for remediation measures and to address the public health issues of the victims.

The NGT had noted that good governance in waste management had been neglected for a long time, which poses a threat to the rule of law, and called for an inquiry to determine culpability in the larger public interest. 

To recall, an environmental disaster hit Kochi on March 2 this year when a massive fire broke out in the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant, and huge clouds of smoke engulfed the city.