The deepening impasse over non-payment of environmental compensation imposed by the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee on urban local bodies and other government agencies has pushed environmental governance into a dangerous territory. What was envisioned as a strong deterrent under the Polluter Pays Principle is rapidly losing credibility—not due to any legal infirmity, but because of a glaring absence of accountability within the government system itself.
The irony could not be starker. Private sector violators, even after exhausting legal remedies up to the Supreme Court, have largely complied and deposited environmental compensation. Government bodies—ULBs, government hospitals, development authorities and infrastructure agencies—on the other hand, continue to default with impunity. This selective compliance strikes at the core of the rule of law and sends a deeply damaging signal that public authorities are above the very norms they are mandated to enforce.
In today’s information-rich environment, ignorance of environmental norms is no defence. Regulations governing sewage treatment, solid waste management, construction and demolition waste, and hazardous waste disposal are clearly notified and repeatedly reinforced through court orders, NGT directions and official advisories. Yet untreated sewage, municipal waste, construction debris and hazardous material continue to be dumped into rivers, nallahs, wetlands and other water bodies. This is not accidental non-compliance; it is systemic negligence.
Environmental compensation is not merely punitive—it is remedial. NGT directions categorically mandate that the funds collected be utilised in the same area where environmental damage has occurred, whether for STPs, solid waste management facilities, remediation of polluted water bodies or other corrective infrastructure. Non-payment therefore directly delays environmental restoration, allowing pollution to intensify and public health risks to multiply. Despite years of warnings, deadlines, affidavits and monitoring, STPs remain incomplete or non-functional, waste management facilities exist largely on paper, and legacy waste continues to accumulate. Affidavits multiply; outcomes do not.
The deterrent effect of environmental compensation has thus been blunted. The oft-repeated excuse of “no separate budget provision” has evolved into an institutionalised shield against accountability. Responsibility is endlessly passed—from implementing agencies to administrative departments to the Finance Department—until it vanishes altogether. The result is environmental devastation. NGT orders, despite Supreme Court backing, are rendered toothless in practice. Worse, a dangerous perception is taking hold within departments that there are no real consequences for defying environmental orders. This perception is breeding fresh violations with alarming ease.
Breaking this deadlock is the government’s responsibility. The first and most immediate step must be the creation of a dedicated budgetary provision for payment of environmental compensation by ULBs and government agencies. Environmental liabilities are statutory obligations, not discretionary expenditures. Equally critical is fixing individual accountability—through adverse entries in APRs, departmental proceedings and, where necessary, withholding of promotions. Deterrence works only when consequences are swift and certain.
Prevention must go hand in hand with enforcement. Clear SOPs must be framed and circulated across departments, with fixed timelines for ULBs to prepare realistic, technically sound plans for STPs and solid waste management facilities. Financial viability must be assessed honestly, with phased funding models replacing the convenient alibi of “high costs”.
Environmental degradation is cumulative and often irreversible. Every untreated discharge and every illegal dumping site compounds the crisis for future generations. Half-measures and hollow assurances have failed. What is needed now are tough decisions, strict enforcement and unwavering accountability—without which environmental regulation will remain little more than an empty slogan.
