Slamming the West, India official seeks heavy fines for own polluters

Indian environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan is planning to extend a round-the- clock pilot program which monitors effluents of industries in the state of Tamil Nadu throughout the country, according to a report in the Deccan Chronicle.

Speaking at a conference on business ethics organized by Loyola Institute of Business Administration, she also called for self-regulation for private corporations to keep pollution in check and to publish their emission data on their websites.

Natarajan added that fines levied on companies for emission violations would be increased. A fine of `1 lakh (about USD2,200) is “very low, and that is completely unacceptable for someone who spoils the environment,” she said.

Criticising the West for ‘continuing to pollute the world and remain unapologetic’, the minister said it was developing countries like India that actually worked towards countering climate change.

"Every day, although there are agreements and commitments, countries like the US, countries in the West, continue to pollute and continue to raise the pollution, without even so much as an apology or without feeling anyway burdened by the kind of pollution that they are bringing about," she said.