Nobody wants to do anything: NGT on Ganga pollution

New Delhi, May 4: Irked by the lackadaisical approach of authorities concerned in dealing with the issues concerning pollution in river Ganga, the National Green Tribunal today observed that "nobody wants to do anything" on these aspects.

"There is no use of calling meetings. We have got nothing from anybody about phase two (of cleaning of river Ganga)," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said, adding, "The problem is that nobody wants to do anything."

The bench observed this while saying it has not received the reports about quality of water in Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

It, however, fixed the matter for hearing on May 20. On April 5, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board had informed the tribunal that it has identified 1,070 seriously polluting industries from Haridwar to Kanpur which discharge 219.18 million litres per day of effluents in Ganga.

The NGT had earlier ordered the UP Pollution Control Board to put on its website the list of these seriously polluting units and had directed the Environment Ministry to clarify the process of identifying seriously and grossly polluting industrial units in public domain.

The tribunal on December 23, 2015 had held a meeting of stakeholders including chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand besides other senior officers from both the states.

The green panel had divided the cleaning work of Ganga into different segments -- Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.

On December 11, last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on use of plastic of any kind from Gomukh to Haridwar along the Ganga with effect from February 1 while slapping a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamshalas and ashrams spewing waste into the river.

PTI