NGT says UP Jal Nigam's policy on Centre's Ganga Action Plan best examples of uselessness

The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday sternly criticised the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam on attitude and approach to the Ganga Action Plan, saying that the institution is one of the best examples of uselessness, as it has done nothing since its inception in 1975.

"The Centre is spending around Rs. 20000 crore to clean the Ganga, but a useless institution like yours (UP Jal Nigam) and other agencies are effectively blocking progress and preventing the plan's implementation," the tribunal said.

This is not the first time that the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam has been pulled up by the NGT. In August, the NGT had sent notices to the Uttar Pradesh government and to the UP Jal Nigam asking both to explain as to why the western parts of Uttar Pradesh were not being provided with sufficient potable, clean and drinking water.

The NGT also indirectly pulled up the UP Pollution Control Board, by stating that 'the cause of groundwater contamination is not natural, but because of human intervention either through use of farm fertilisers or discharge of industrial effluents.

The pollution control board had been maintaining all along that all was well at their end and no industrial effluent was being discharged into the Kali, Hindon and Krishna rivers - the three prominent rivers that flow through west UP.

In October,the NGT again pulled up the UP Jal Nigam for its failure to comply with a 2015 order directing it to seal all hand pumps which were releasing contaminated ground water in six districts in the western part of the state.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar pulled up the authorities for not complying with its November 2015 order and asked why a joint affidavit has not been filed yet.

"It's shocking. Why don't you read the order and comply with it," the bench had said then, but then granted the UP Jal Nigam some more time to comply with it.

The NGT bench has in the past expressed its concern over potable water not being provided to the poor villagers of six Western Uttar Pradesh districts.