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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Shift factories for Ganga: SC

Shift factories for Ganga: SC

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published Published on Oct 16, 2014   modified Modified on Oct 16, 2014
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today said "heads should roll" because the Ganga has remained polluted even after 30 years and Rs 20,000 crore of clean-up efforts and hinted it might order the closure of industrial units pumping waste into the sacred river.

"You can't shift the city but at least you can shift the factories," a three-judge bench said in a terse warning to over 700 such units as the Centre's counsel and the lawyer for the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) spoke of threats inspectors have faced from pistol-carrying goons.

The bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur said it would set up two committees to oversee the clean-up mission. One would be headed by retired IAS officer Bhure Lal to suggest ways to check industrial pollution, and the other by E. Sreedharan, former managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, to go into the larger issue of achieving the target.

Solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar and CPCB counsel Vijay Panjwani both said corruption was the main reason the river was still polluted, even 30 years after the Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1985. Over Rs 20,000 crore has been spent since then.

Panjwani said CPCB officials have been threatened with pistols to prevent them from taking action when they visited polluting units. "They keep the pistol butts on the waists of our officers and ask us to settle the matter," Panjwani told the court.

Kumar said officials invariably go for inspections with police escorts. "If police fail, we call the army, but if the army fails, who do you call?"

The bench said there had to be "accountability".

"So many heads should roll," Justice Thakur observed. "Effluent treatment plants and other mechanisms are not being allowed to function.... Some people who are supposed to prevent and not allow such industries to function are not doing their work, because they are being offered bribes."

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his maiden budget announced Rs 51,000 crore for the Ganga clean-up mission. According to the NDA government, it has identified 118 towns in five states to achieve "total sanitation targets", including wastewater treatment and solid waste management. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal would be covered under the scheme, the Centre said in an affidavit filed today.

But the assurance from solicitor-general Kumar failed to convince the bench that also included Justices A.K. Goel and R. Banumathi. "For the past 10 years nothing has happened except one STP (sewage treatment plant) at Dehra Dun.... There has to be a clear vision and mission.... Apart from the Prime Minister, is there any other man who has a clear vision, who can come and tell us?

"There has to be accountability.... Some issues cannot wait. It can lead to pollution and deaths. Those areas have to be identified," Justice Thakur told Kumar.

The solicitor-general said the new government had its own ideas and sought time till December 2015 to show some results. The bench posted the matter for further hearing to next Wednesday.


The Telegraph, 16 October, 2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141016/jsp/nation/story_18931758.jsp#.VD-E0Mlwxng


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