Union minister for environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan, has favoured setting-up of a corpus fund to aid quick response to fight oil spills off the Indian coast. In the recent past, there have been frequent incidents of crude oil leakages from breakdown of ships and leakage from pipelines operated by oil companies on the west coast.
The minister held wide-ranging consultations with all stakeholders in Mumbai, and reviewed the status of the present safety systems adopted by the concerned agencies.
Addressing a press conference after the two-hour long meeting, Ms Natarajan said that the cleaning operation after the oil spills often got delayed due to lack of clarity about who would fund it. She said that a corpus fund would come in handy under such circumstances, and the cleaning up operation could begin immediately, thereby limiting damages to the environment. The outgo from the fund would be reimbursed once the compensation liability is established and claims settled.
The minister said, “This is a good proposal. The corpus size and the pattern of funding will be finalised after holding consultations with the stakeholders and discussing the matter with the Prime Minister.” Ms Natarajan added that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had some experience in this regard, acquired while dealing with multiple oil slicks during 2010. She said that the Maharashtra model will be studied further.
Though as many as 40 ships are stranded at different places off the Indian coast, Ms Natarajan assured that there is no immediate danger from these ships. According to her, the shipping authorities have been monitoring the entry and exit of ships in Indian waters by following well laid out guidelines. The minister, however. insisted on strong environmental laws to deal with shipping vessels that damage India’s fragile coastal eco-system, including provisions for establishing criminal liability.
Ms Natarajan also asked the Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards to review the status of existing pipeline networks at major ports to identify vulnerable areas that would need replacement or upgradation. She also asked the oil companies to upgrade their existing pipelines with monitoring systems like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) to regularly monitor the health of pipelines. She emphasied the need for strict adherence to environmental measures aimed at controlling pollution while handling materials in ports.