HC stays proceedings in 17 PPCB notices issued to turncoat MP’s Trident Group

Bathinda: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday put a stay on proceedings related to all 17 notices issued by the Punjab Pollution Control Board on May 27 to the Trident Group. Rajya Sabha MP Rajinder Gupta, who had shifted from AAP to the BJP recently, is chairman emeritus of the textile group.A division bench comprising Justice Sandeep Moudgil and Justice Rupinderjit Chahal stayed proceedings related to notices that had been issued for violation of air and water pollution norms. It fixed July 10 as the next date of hearing. The high court had on May 8 observed the PPCB had failed to show any emergent situation where any stream, well, land or environment was being polluted by the unit, and it would be appropriate to allow it to take coercive steps only after affording "reasonable opportunity" of 30 days to the petitioner company for rectifying minor deficiencies.However, on May 27, the PPCB issued 17 show-cause notices to the group and asked its representatives to appear before its chairperson on June 30 with their replies. The previous notice was issued on April 24, and a check was carried out at the group's unit at Dhaula village in Barnala on April 30. Trident Group had, in its plea to the court, claimed that the PPCB action was "mala fide", taken as Rajiner Gupta had shifted from AAP to BJP. Trident Group had again approached the court after getting the notices on May 27, and the petition was taken up on Wednesday.The group's counsel, Viraj Gandhi, called the PPCB's action "predetermined". He said the board pre-judged the company to be guilty and did not even wait for 30 days or the pronouncing of the previous order on May 8. "We reiterated that it is politically motivated case and the notices were of the nature to cause losses to the industry without specifying serious violations caused by it (industry)," Gandhi said.When contacted, PPCB's Barnala executive engineer, Surinderjit Singh, confirmed the notices, but declined to elaborate on reasons behind them.