TNPCB defends Rs six crore penalty on ‘repeat offender’ CPCL

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has strongly defended its decision before the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to levy `6.24 crore as environmental compensation on the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) for repeated emission violations at its Manali facilities.

In a reply affidavit submitted recently, the TNPCB said the compensation was computed strictly in line with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines, using data from the Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) installed at CPCL’s own stacks and connected to the board’s servers. The TNPCB argued that exceedances recorded over months across multiple units were undisputed.