HC asks pollution control board to file affidavit

Allahabad, Sep 6 (UNI) Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board to file counter affidavit placing on record the position with respect to consent/no objection required for the various environmental laws and whether the same had been obtained by the industries.

Hearing a PIL filed by Anil Rana, director of Janhit Foundation, the bench consisting of Chief Justice H L Gokhale and Justice Anjani Kumar observed ''we expect from UP State Pollution Control Board to place on record as for what is the nature of the effluent that are being discharged into the river and whether necessary steps are being taken by the industries before the effluent are being discharged into the river and what steps are being taken up to stop this by the pollution control board.'' Advocate K K Roy and P P Singh presented the case of Hindon river, once known as life line of western UP was now gasping for breath due to heavy pollution done by almost 60 big industries mainly distillaries, papermills, sugarmills in the catchment area of Hindon.

These industries discharge their untreated effluent directly into the river.

A new industry, Bajaj Elco Product Ltd, a big chemical unit too has recently been established in the river catchment area.

The Janhit Foundation had also prepared and published a report.

Hindon flows in a stretch of 360 kms and passes through six districts, namely Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar and provides irrigational water to the field of around 7000 sqkm.

Due to unprecedented pollution in the river, the under ground water has also become unusable and causing serious disease among the inhabitants living in the villages on the bank of Hindon river.

UNI