JOIN USNGT pulls up ‘Clean Ganga’ mission for continued sewage discharge into river
Despite the National Democratic Alliance government spending huge amounts of money to clean River Ganga—under the National Mission for Clean Ganga programme—the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said that untreated sewage and effluents continued to flow into the river.
The Principal Bench of the NGT, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, sought an action report from the central panel about the status of cleanliness of the river.
According to the tribunal, despite monitoring by different agencies, and because of the absence of a requisite functional treatment capacity, 50 per cent of “untreated sewage and substantial industrial effluents are continuing to be discharged in the river” or its tributaries/drains.
The NGT then ordered that the National Mission for Clean Ganga present at the next meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC) “which is highest authority under the 2016 Ganga Order” the agenda to review the existing mechanism and to hold the NGC meeting within a month or as early as possible.
According to the order, the NMCG must review the existing mechanism to execute the work “of setting up and maintaining requisite treatment system to ensure prevention of pollution of Ganga”.
The Namami Gange programme was launched by the NDA government in June 2014, with a total budgetary outlay of Rs 20,000 crore. The objective of the programme was to accomplish effective abatement of pollution of the Ganga, as well as conservation and rejuvenation of the river and its tributaries.
The Green Bench also observed that execution by state authorities was not adequate, or too slow and that it lacked ownership. “The National Mission for Clean Ganga does not appear to be in a position to take stringent measures against non-compliances and failure to achieve goals in a time-bound manner,” the NGT said.
The green tribunal also said that the agency, which is implementing the clean river project, must work proactively and effectively. Working must be goal-oriented with “defined accountability, followed by strict consequences for defaults,” it ruled.
“In dealing with Ganga pollution, there has to be a change in attitude of those who have to execute remedial measures. Unless such change takes place, no purpose is achieved in the ritual of monitoring by this Tribunal, and direction of the Supreme Court for effective monitoring is defeated,” the bench said.
“Substantial funds are provided by the NMCG without expected results. Reasons for not achieving results may be due to tardy processes or lack of effective credible mechanisms. Timelines have kept changing conveniently since decades. Even now there is no commitment for any fixed timeline in future, to the great and irreversible detriment of Ganga,” the bench said.