Published On : Sat, Oct 10th, 2015

NGT pulls Central Govt for unclean Ganga, chides for wasting crores

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  • Rs 5000 crore spent on Ganga Action Plan so far, but of no avail

New Delhi/ Nagpur: In its accountable authoritarian gesture, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the Central Government on Saturday to show any such place where the Ganga-water is clean. Chiding the government, the NGT observed that the level of pollution of Ganga has become bad to worse despite spending crores of rupees on its cleansing action plan, and the purity as well as continuity of its flow has not been attained by the government which had made tall claims just to impress people, said the media reports.

Finding that nothing much has been done to cleanse Ganga, the Tribunal observed that both the Centre and the State had been playing blame-game over the issue for all these years. As directed by the Supreme Court, the Tribunal has been asked to take action against the industrial units which pollute the Ganges.

NGT Chairman Justice Swatantra Kumar, heading the tribunal, asked the government,”Will the Government admit that more than Rs 5000 crore have been expended on making Ganga bad to worse? We do not know whether the said amount of money has been given to the states or the Central Govt itself has spent it.”

The Tribunal asked the government to show any such place where the situation of pollution has been improved on 2500 km long belt of Ganga river. It may be mentioned here that the lawyer on behalf of Water Resource Ministry told NGT that from year 1985 to the last year about Rs 4000 have been spent on Ganga Action Plan (GAP).

The lawyer informed NGT that the GAP was started in year 1985. It was followed by GAP-Phase 2 in year 1993 to improve the quality of river-water. In year 2009, the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) was formed for pollution control of Ganga. He further said, NGRBA sponsored by World Bank was accountable for control of pollution, for which 70% was contributed by the Centre and the remaining was to be shared by states.

Hearing the statements of the lawyer, the NGT remarked,”Whatever you are saying, say carefully. What we observe is that nothing has been done. We have been demanding information on the issue for past one year but you have been dillydallying. At this stage we do not want to comment, but this time we leave it your prudence, for cleansing of Ganga is your main responsibility. Now your are left with less number of days.”

The NGT also asked the Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments as well as other agencies concerned to table their suggestions, with the remaks, “We will not leave our orders un-executed. We will fix the responsibility of each state.” The NGT clarified that it had framed strict guidelines for cleansing of Ganga from Gomukh to Kanpur in the first phase.