New Delhi, July 18 (KNN) The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to shut down such polluting units that fall in critically polluted areas (CPAs) within a span of three months.

Industries in everal polluted areas (SPAs) city like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Batala of Punjab and Gurgaon in Haryana are facing a threat of shut down.

As a cost of snag and damage caused to the environment and health of the public, NGT has directed to recover the assess of compensation for the last five years from such units.

Ludhiana, Batala, and Jalandhar stands at 31st place in the list of polluted areas all over the country. While Gurgaon stands at 38 critically polluted areas in the country. The CPCB has now to file a report and submit to the NGT within next three months.

On the basis of air, water, and other pollution, a separate report has to be made which should be notified under public domain within restricted time, NGT directed to CPCB.

Karunesh Garg member secretary of the Punjab, Pollution Control board said, “Industries in Jalandhar, Batala and Ludhiana will be given a prior notice of 15 days and will be allowed to install equipments to restrict the pollution to keep their industries in operation."

After state PCBs and CPCB held a joint study in 2009-10 and marked 88 industrial clusters as the PLAs. Moreover, PLAs were marked in terms of CPAs, SPAs and other polluting areas based on the comprehensive environmental pollution index (CEPI) scores of these industrial areas.