It is deeply frustrating and disheartening that the pursuit of environmental justice in Kerala has been marred by long delays, misdirected policies and a lack of compassion. For several years now, hundreds of residential complexes—both old and new—have borne the brunt of quasi-legal notices, threats and penalties issued by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). These actions not only challenge the right to peaceful and respectful family living, but also stigmatise law-abiding citizens striving to maintain sustainable urban living.

The Kerala State PCB, a statutory body established under the Air Act, Water Act and the Environment Protection Act, is mandated to protect our environment. However, its execution of this responsibility has often been one-sided, opaque and punitive, especially toward residents of apartment and villa communities. The misclassification of 99% of housing societies under the ‘Orange’ category, instead of the appropriate ‘White’ or ‘Green’ categories, has triggered the application of industrial-level compliance norms to residential complexes. As a result, these communities are forced to operate under unrealistic standards, facing penalties, threats of service disconnections and even retrospective punitive actions—despite being non-industrial, non-polluting entities. This classification error has effectively criminalised residential living, undermining dignity and equality before the law.

Unjust PCB rules are framed and circulars are issued while conveniently ignoring the factual and connected ground realities. As a result, penalties are being imposed and demanded under the guise of noncompliance even with retrospective effect. Basically, these housing societies either with or without the STPs and those with or without PCB consent to operate (CTO) are in reality being made scapegoats.

As a result, this has created a form of segregation within the community, while the enforcing authorities (PCB/government) fail to provide alternative basic services or practical solutions. It amounts to the easy targeting of apartment residents—even where STPs are installed and fully functional—despite their higher operating costs for electricity, manpower, and annual maintenance.

Let there be no doubt that sewage must be treated. However, placing the entire responsibility on residential societies—demanding treatment to near-drinking-water standards—while other households and government complexes bear no accountability for their own waste is unjust and one-sided. Such an interpretation of the law degrades human dignity and wrongly brands apartment and villa residents as inferior, creating a false sense of inferiority. This approach is both sociologically unsound and morally wrong.

Over the years, the State PCB—using its excessive powers—has repeatedly tweaked rules through circulars, compelling a minority group (gated community complexes) to comply, while not making the same requirements binding on itself or other government establishments. This is done with full knowledge that many of these norms are impractical and difficult to implement. A truly just law is one that applies uniformly to all sections of society, rather than singling out one group for compliance.

This injustice must be understood for only if the inefficiencies of the dept and connected govt bodies can be brought to light, then alone can natural justice follow. Moreover, the State PCB’s norms are far more stringent and significantly at variance with those of the Central PCB. Apartment buildings have been unfairly isolated and targeted as “soft” scapegoats, with misleading claims that they are the main source of water and ground pollution—claims amplified through selective media reporting. This has created confusion and sends the wrong message, despite the reality that apartment complexes are, in fact, among the few places where multiple waste-management practices are consistently implemented.

The human dignity of apartment and villa residents—and of the associations that manage these complexes—has been trampled despite their spending considerable time, energy, and hard-earned income to maintain proper waste-management systems, often with little or no external support. It is especially painful that gated community societies are continually badgered and charged substantial penalties—well beyond the consent-to-operate requirements—and even threatened with illegal actions such as disconnection of water or KSEB services and revocation of occupancy certificates. This relentless pressure has so eroded their self-respect that many feel like victims of a bureaucratic “Stockholm syndrome”.

Another serious grievance is the one-sided imposition of discharge-quality norms by the Kerala State PCB, including a BOD requirement of below 3 mg/L (essentially drinking-water standard) for release into storm drains. There is not even an iota of fairness in setting such criteria. These anomalies must be rooted out through strong, persistent action backed by political and administrative will, and guided by the judiciary so that the facts are fully examined and placed in proper context.

Whether it is the provision of a common septage treatment plant or the establishment of centralized/regional STPs by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), hardly any progress has been made in the last three decades, with the fact that even now, only less than 5 % of Kochi is connected to a regional STP. It is high time to hold these government bodies accountable, especially given the crores of rupees collected by the PCB. The so-called “fees and penalties” collected from housing societies under the Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) heads over the past 15 years warrant a full audit of PCB accounts. Such an audit would expose the extent of profiteering by the department, which has provided virtually no services in return to the housing complexes that have paid these enormous sums. Transparency is essential—only then can true accountability be established and the underlying prejudice brought to light.

Apartment and villa residents live with a collective sense of responsibility toward their communities and the environment. They have consistently taken positive, proactive steps to manage waste and protect the surroundings. Yet, despite these efforts, they now find themselves in despair, subjected to oppression by the PCB. We do not wish to overstate the truth or show unreasonable impatience, but to resist such oppression and remain true to their convictions, these societies are compelled to fight for justice—maintaining deep respect for, yet only a flickering hope in, the judicial system to urgently correct this long-standing and serious anomaly.

 

(The author is former chairman of CREDAI Kerala)