'PIL doctor' for green ailments
RELATED
KOLKATA:
Bespectacled, short and bald, he by no means fits the mould of an
archetypal hero. With a disarming smile and a genial sense of humour, he
even recounts his initiation into public life with mirth. "It was my
first demonstration. We had decided to lie on the road in protest but
had never realized how hot it was. Soon, we were hoping the police would
arrive soon and drive us away before we got scalded," recalled
environmentalist Subhas Datta.
That was in mid-70s. Since then, Datta has traveled a long way and substituted public agitation with public interest litigations. The PIL man who has till date filed 57 PILs, the most by an Indian, has single-handedly won 51, many of them indelibly changing life in Kolkata.
"I am a Protestant, not by religion but by practice," says Datta. It is the spirit to fight for social and environmental inequities that makes Datta remarkable. A chartered accountant by profession and green crusader by passion, Datta's PILs forced the book fair out of the Maidan to prevent littering and pollution; led to car parking restriction around Victoria Memorial Hall to protect the Raj era monument; and scrapping of 15-year-old smoke-belching, ramshackle taxis and buses as well as banning use of adulterated fuel in autos to clean up the air.
"I file PILs to place the plight of people before the court. They are based on facts, figures and logic. When I get some information about environment pollution, I go to the spot, collect evidence and photographs, draft the petition and argue the case," says Datta, who considers the setting up of the Green Bench in Calcutta high court, the first in the country, to be his most significant achievement.
"By raising a host of environmental issues plaguing Kolkata and Howrah before the Supreme Court, he made Justice Kuldip Singh aware of the need for division benches in high courts that would deal with just environmental matters. In subsequent years, he has brought various important environmental issues before the judiciary. In many instances, the state pollution control board has worked in tandem with him because it could not deny the importance of issues that he brought before the court," said former state environment department senior law officer Biswajit Mukherjee.
Born in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, Datta moved to Howrah with his parents a year after birth. After his schooling and graduation, Datta trained as a chartered accountant in the 1970s. In 1977, he became the general secretary of Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samity (Howrah Democratic People's Forum) and began fighting for civic and social issues. Around two decades later, he found his calling card in environment.
And he has been a fearless green crusader since. Not many would have dared take on the government and even the people when he sought to have the immensely popular Kolkata Book Fair thrown out of the Maidan. Ditto with taking on the auto-rickshaw mafia that used highly carcinogenic adulterated fuel to rake in the moolah. His most audacious one has been taking on the ritual of idol immersion in the Hooghly that has forced civic and port authorities clean the river after immersion. He is now seeking a complete ban on immersion, a move that could set Hindu hardliners baying for his blood.
"I have been arrested and beaten up several times, accused of 15 criminal charges including attempt to murder and molestation. But the courts threw out all the allegations as they were false," said Datta, managing to grin even when talking about the adversity. He is a funny man alright but you can bet he is a hero.
River scientist Kalyan Rudra, who is there on the court appointed river monitoring panel along with Datta, said the latter had taken judicial activism to a new level and definitely contributed to the cause of environment in Kolkata and rest of the state. "Given that judicial activism happens when executive becomes non-functional, I wish the state was more pro-active in dealing with the issues that Datta has rightly raised and got remedy from courts," he remarked.
Wetland expert Dhrubajyoti Ghosh agreed: "Datta brought judicial activism to the forefront in Kolkata. The PILs have involved a lot of home work that he has done diligently for years," he added.
That was in mid-70s. Since then, Datta has traveled a long way and substituted public agitation with public interest litigations. The PIL man who has till date filed 57 PILs, the most by an Indian, has single-handedly won 51, many of them indelibly changing life in Kolkata.
"I am a Protestant, not by religion but by practice," says Datta. It is the spirit to fight for social and environmental inequities that makes Datta remarkable. A chartered accountant by profession and green crusader by passion, Datta's PILs forced the book fair out of the Maidan to prevent littering and pollution; led to car parking restriction around Victoria Memorial Hall to protect the Raj era monument; and scrapping of 15-year-old smoke-belching, ramshackle taxis and buses as well as banning use of adulterated fuel in autos to clean up the air.
"I file PILs to place the plight of people before the court. They are based on facts, figures and logic. When I get some information about environment pollution, I go to the spot, collect evidence and photographs, draft the petition and argue the case," says Datta, who considers the setting up of the Green Bench in Calcutta high court, the first in the country, to be his most significant achievement.
"By raising a host of environmental issues plaguing Kolkata and Howrah before the Supreme Court, he made Justice Kuldip Singh aware of the need for division benches in high courts that would deal with just environmental matters. In subsequent years, he has brought various important environmental issues before the judiciary. In many instances, the state pollution control board has worked in tandem with him because it could not deny the importance of issues that he brought before the court," said former state environment department senior law officer Biswajit Mukherjee.
Born in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, Datta moved to Howrah with his parents a year after birth. After his schooling and graduation, Datta trained as a chartered accountant in the 1970s. In 1977, he became the general secretary of Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samity (Howrah Democratic People's Forum) and began fighting for civic and social issues. Around two decades later, he found his calling card in environment.
And he has been a fearless green crusader since. Not many would have dared take on the government and even the people when he sought to have the immensely popular Kolkata Book Fair thrown out of the Maidan. Ditto with taking on the auto-rickshaw mafia that used highly carcinogenic adulterated fuel to rake in the moolah. His most audacious one has been taking on the ritual of idol immersion in the Hooghly that has forced civic and port authorities clean the river after immersion. He is now seeking a complete ban on immersion, a move that could set Hindu hardliners baying for his blood.
"I have been arrested and beaten up several times, accused of 15 criminal charges including attempt to murder and molestation. But the courts threw out all the allegations as they were false," said Datta, managing to grin even when talking about the adversity. He is a funny man alright but you can bet he is a hero.
River scientist Kalyan Rudra, who is there on the court appointed river monitoring panel along with Datta, said the latter had taken judicial activism to a new level and definitely contributed to the cause of environment in Kolkata and rest of the state. "Given that judicial activism happens when executive becomes non-functional, I wish the state was more pro-active in dealing with the issues that Datta has rightly raised and got remedy from courts," he remarked.
Wetland expert Dhrubajyoti Ghosh agreed: "Datta brought judicial activism to the forefront in Kolkata. The PILs have involved a lot of home work that he has done diligently for years," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment