Ganga cleaning project: SC raps Centre for not appointing Pollution Control Board chief

DNA India , Thursday, October 16, 2014
Correspondent : PTI
The NDA government on Wednesday asserted before the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious clean Ganga plan has a "vision" to achieve the goal of 'aviral' (uninterrupted) and 'nirmal' (clean) river. "The ultimate (plan and target) is clean and continuous flow of Ganga. Aviral and nirmal flow of Ganga," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted before a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur.

The Solicitor General made the statement in the wake of repeated remarks by the bench that the Centre was "visionless" in its mission to clean the "holiest of its holy rivers". "You are unable to tell about the vision for the last three hearings. We want to know what is the ultimate," the bench, also comprising justices A K Goel and R Banumati was asking the Solicitor General. Not denying that lot of money, probably in thousands of crores of rupees, has gone into the project for cleaning Ganga since 1985, Kumar said, "The focus today has changed. 118 towns have been identified to be focused and 1649 gram panchayats to be focused and the focus today is that we have to achieve the target."

"Today we have a vision. We are bound to do this. We are making us responsible that we will achieve the target," the Solicitor General said and added that clean Ganga project is connected with 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan', another ambitious plan of the Prime Minister. He said in the next two years it will become clear how many Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and sewarage are in place at different cities and towns through which the Ganga flows in five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

He said a consultative meeting to discuss the issues of industrial pollution in river Ganga was organised by Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change on September 19 which focused on installation of real-time effluent quality monitoring system by the grossly polluting industries located in the Ganga river basin within the planned time lime by March 31, 2015. Kumar, who was pleading the bench to give time till December so that the Centre could come out with a compact plan, also passed the blame for the critical state of affairs of Ganga to statutory bodies like Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), working without a chairman for around six months. "CPCB is a complete failure in terms of functioning," was how the bench reacted when it was told by Solicitor General that "it is not doing its duty," and there are "764 grossly polluting units" along the Ganga.

"What have you (CPCB) done? Can you shut your eyes and say it's for State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) to do. What have you done for 764 grossly polluted units. You are a specialised agency. It is your job," the bench observed after CPCB's counsel Vijay Panjwani explained the functioning of the Board. He said SPCBs of five states are not responding to the instructions and directions of the CPCB.

"It is a very unfortunate situation," the bench observed while directing the Centre to file an affidavit within 10 days stating the reasons for delay in the appointment of CPCB Chairman after the previous person demitted office on his retirement or expiry of term. The bench noted that from the perusal of affidavits it appears that CPCB has initiated action against 215 units in Uttar Pradesh, one in Bihar and six in West Bengal, totaling to 222 where action has to be initiated. It directed CPCB to file action taken in these cases and also place on record direction issued by it under environmental protection act and Water Act.

The bench, which posted the next hearing for October 29 said, "It is a headless body. Body like CPCB is without a head for six months. The situation is like if police administration fails, you call army and if army fails, whom you will call? "Crores of rupees are paid but what are the people in CPCB doing? They are the ones who have to wake up. Their functioning can't be taken by others," the bench observed.

Referring to bodies like CPCB, the bench said, "So many heads should roll. They are continuing with corrupt means.

This is bleeding corruption. Some people who have to prevent corruption are not doing the work. They are bribed, they are not doing what they have to do." While referring to the affidavits filed in the past by the Centre, the bench said, "There shall be a clear mission for the vision. Either you have a legislation or administrative decision that there are objectives to clean Ganga." The bench during the deliberations also asked the Solicitor General to explore the possibility of setting up of a court-appointed committee for keeping surveillance on the clean Ganga project.

The bench was suggesting the committee headed by bureaucrat Bhure Lal which monitored the sealing of aunthorised commercial premises in the national capital. Further, the bench also referred the name of E Sreedharan, who had a vision to implement the project for metro rail in the national capital saying there was a need of people with vision like him for the clean Ganga project.

 
SOURCE : http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-ganga-cleaning-project-sc-raps-centre-for-not-appointing-pollution-control-board-chief-2026473
 


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