Under obligation to implement NGT directive: Advocate for tanneries

Advocate for tanneries M.Z. Choudhary on Thursday said the National Green Tribunal (NGT) disposed off the petition of the Ganga, passing various directions to the Namami Ganga, state governments, the pollution control board and various stakeholders that they all would be under obligation to implement the directions as laid down in the judgement.

He said the main direction of the Tribunal is that the Namami Ganga will complete the project by 2019, because the finance is enough on the basis of the directions.

"They will act upon for the purpose of the Zero-liquid discharge (ZLDs). The bank said that the ZLD is not possible and every affluent of the sewage will be treated by a method of dilution," he said.

"The question that arises with the judgement is whether it should be 100 m or 500 m. The bench also observed that the tanneries, and all the stakeholders would sit together with the state pollution control board and the committee constituted by the bench to make a proposal of the action plan within six weeks from today itself as to how the direction will be implemented by the tanneries and if they fail to implement or summit the action plan within six weeks then the matter will be referred to shifting of this tanneries to this place to some other place," he added.

The NGT today declared the area 100 metres from the edge of the river Ganga as a ' no-development zone' in the stretch between Haridwar to Unnao.

The green panel directed that there should not be any kind of waste dumping within 500 meters from the edge of Ganga within the stretch of Haridwar to Unnao.

The tribunal also directed authorities to impose a penalty of Rs. 50,000 on people dumping waste in river Ganga, within the stretch of Haridwar to Unnao.

In its order, the NGT also observed that almost Rs. 7,304 crore have been spent within the stretch, but it has all gone in vain.

The NGT also observed that there are fundamental errors in planning and regulation that have led to the failure of the cleaning of Ganga.

In its previous hearing, the NGT had asked the ministries of environment and power to apprise it about the steps taken by thermal power plants to avoid discharge of effluents and fly ash around the Ganga river.

The tribunal, earlier this year, decided on an inspection of the most polluted stretch of the Ganga between Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to get a clear picture on the situation.

The green tribunal is hearing, since February 6, a 32-year-old case of pollution in the river, after the Supreme Court forwarded the matter to it.

In April, the NGT ordered the shutting down of 13 polluting industries along the river and imposed penalty on several others.