New Delhi, July 20 (Inditop.com) The government is finalising a bill to set up a National Green Tribunal (NGT), Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh informed parliament Monday.

“The NGT intends to reduce the load of environmental cases, of civil nature, pending in higher courts and to help in speedy disposal of such cases,” Ramesh informed the Rajya Sabha in response to a question.

“Since the NGT is proposed to have judicial as well as expert members, it is likely to result in effective disposal of environmental cases which involve multi-disciplinary issues,” he added.

MP A.B. Kshatriya had sought to know the number of environmental cases pending in courts around India. In reply, Ramesh wrote: “As environmental cases are inter-sectoral and cross-cutting in nature, it is difficult to exactly quantify the same.”