Pollution free-Ganga programmes for 'Ardh Kumbh'

Lucknow, Jun 25: With the auspicious 'Ardh Kumbh' mela at Allahabad approaching fast, the Uttar Pradesh government has embarked upon a pollution free Ganga programme for people attending the religious congregation in January next year.

The centre is contemplating to convene a meeting of environment ministers of Haryana, Uttaranchal and UP to chalk out an action plan to deal with rising pollution in Ganga.

On the other hand, UP has decided to serve notices to all industrial units, particularly tanneries in Kanpur, discharging waste in the Ganga. UP can go to the extent of closing these units, if they do not install waste treatment plants to stop polluting the river.

Meanwhile, saints and sadhus have already raised concern on the pollution level in Ganga and threatened to boycott the 'Ardh Kumbh', if remedial measures are not taken immediately.

UP environment minister Ujjwal Raman Singh told sources here union minister A Raja had assured to convene a meeting of concerned ministers of various states to deal with the Ganga pollution.

Mr Singh, who belongs to Allahabad, said all efforts would be made to maintain quality of water in Ganga and if required stringent action taken against erring industrial units polluting the river.

''We will send notices to all the industrial units discharging waste in to Ganga. If they do not react by September, action would be taken against them,'' he added.

Of the total 367 tanneries in Kanpur, most are discharging their waste in to Ganga.

Last year, UP had ordered closure of 15 tanneries in Kanpur and Unnao districts after they were found releasing waste in Ganga.

Before the last Makarsankranti bathing held at Allahabad on Januaury 14 - in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Puri Shankaracharya had asked him to take up cleaning of the river on an urgent basis before the 2007 'Ardh Kumbh' festival.

Underlining the enormous pollution level of the river, Swami Adhokshjanand Dev Tirtha of Puri said, ''The authorities are warning not to even touch it...the water is red at many places. Improperly treated sewage and industrial pollutant is flowing into it.'' In his letter, he also sought a deadline to be set for taking up the phase I clean-up job of Ganga before the 'Ardh Kumbh' festival.

In March, the Supreme Court had directed the centre, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the states through which Ganga flows to file affidavits within three weeks detailing up to date information regarding the progress made in the direction of cleaning the holy river.

A bench comprising chief justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran issued the directions after having been informed by the amicus curior Krishan Mahajan that about Rs 1,000 crore had already been spent, while Ganga had become more polluted than before.

Mahajan also claimed the government was hiding information from the court to cover up its failure to implement the plan to rid the holy river of pollution.

The court was also informed that keeping in view the importance of the project, the committee of the centre was headed by the PM himself.

The petitioner told the court that lakhs of people using Ganga water were falling ill and suffering from diseases such as typhoid, skin diseases, while the project was aimed at ensuring health of the people.

The union ministry of environment has not filed a single report in the court till date and in 1994, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) gave the report that despite money having been spent, Ganga remained as polluted as before.

In 2000, the CAG report pointed towards huge financial mismanagement and the bacterial levels in Ganga had gone up beyond prescribed limits.

In January, the Allahabad High Court taking serious note of the deteriorating quality of Ganga in Allahabad, had directed UP government to submit a report on the present status of the drain, which were releasing waste water directly into the sacred river.

UNI