New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal has directed the District Magistrate of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh to pay a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the kin of 14 people who died after a newly-constructed cold storage unit collapsed in Mai village last month.
The NGT was hearing a matter where it had initiated suo motu (on its own) proceedings on the basis of a media report about the death of several people because of an incident at the cold storage unit on March 16.
Noting the report by the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) concerned, a bench of Chairperson Justice A K Goel noted that 14 people had died, while four were injured, because of the “sudden fall of a newly constructed chamber for storage of potatoes”.
The bench also comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel said as the death and injuries occurred because of the business activity in the unit, the heirs of the deceased and the injured were entitled to compensation.
“We direct the District Magistrate of Sambhal to ensure payment of compensation to the victims within two months with liberty to recover the same from the project proponent (PP)… Compensation will be Rs 20 lakh to the heirs of each deceased and Rs 2 lakh to the injured…,” the bench said.
The state had to take appropriate precautions to prevent such incidents, the bench said, adding, the payments already made can be adjusted.
It noted that the SDM’s report only mentioned Rs five lakh compensation each paid to the heirs of 12 deceased from Chandausi tehsil, while no information was provided about the others.
The tribunal highlighted that an inherent condition of the “consent mechanism” provided to business units was compensating victims in the case of death or injuries on the principle of absolute liability.
“In absence of payment of such compensation to the victims by the entity in question, the state is liable to pay the same with the right to recover it from the PP. This is the consistent view of this tribunal in a number of cases…(of) unfortunate deaths and injuries of the victims,” the green panel said.
It said the liability to pay compensation is in addition to the criminal liability and in the present case, the tribunal had also requested the state legal services authority to provide legal aid to the victims.
“This tribunal has dealt with several cases of death and injuries having nexus to hazardous business activities and held the business entities in question to compensate the victims on the principle of restitution at Rs 20 lakh for each death and varying scale depending on the extent of injuries,” the NGT said. PTI MNR RHL
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