West Bengal has emitted an awesome signal to the rest of the country a few weeks ahead of the climate change conference in Poland. The government has been rapped on the knuckles with the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposing a fine of Rs 5 crore for the state’s failure to curb pollution in accord with the directive that was advanced two years ago.

The NGT has advanced a resounding message; but save for the Chief Secretary’s meeting with a cross-section of officials last Friday, the withers of Nabanna remain unwrung. It is hard not to wonder whether the meeting was convened as Mr Moloy De has been summoned by the Bench on 8 January to submit what it calls a “comprehensive affidavit” on the steps the government intends to take to counter the “toxic air” in the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah.

The bitter paradox must be that the swanky state secretariat is located amidst the fog and filthy air. The upshot of the meeting is as fogbound as reality. There is, for instance, no data on the number of BS (Bharat Stage) II and III compliant vehicles entering the city.

The phasing out of 15-year-old vehicles is as yet incomplete. The fact of the matter can thus be contextualised with the tribunal’s observation, notably that “one major reason for the poor ambient air quality in Kolkata and Howrah is auto emission”. It has clothed its observation with the administrative reality that the state has “failed to take effective measures”.

There are at least six directives that the government has failed to act upon, in itself a measure of the administration’s negligent nonchalance. The phasing out of old vehicles has been garaged, so to speak, in the realm of present indefinite. Direly imperative is the need to strictly comply with the Bharat Stage norms; to introduce green fuel; to ensure that no fuel is provided in the absence of the Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate; to stringently monitor the certification of vehicle emission; and to use more remote sensing devices to check the emission of vehicles on the move. It is pretty obvious that NGT’s penalty has prompted the Chief Secretary to harp on the basics ~ specifically the need to check emission that is belched out by overloaded trucks, which in itself once again is a violation of traffic rules.

Equally stern is the NGT’s warning that officials responsible for non-compliance “should be put behind bars”. Its order can be contextualised with the Supreme Court’s directive to the Central Pollution Control Board to prosecute under the Environment Protection Act those government officials who fail to take action against polluters. Not to put too fine a point on it, the tribunal has also targeted the West Bengal Pollution Control Board with the stunning observation ~ “Air pollution is the primary responsibility of the state PCB, but it is silent.” Fire crackers have rendered that “silence” deafening at another remove.