Ganga: NGT appoints panel to look into grossly polluting units

The National Green Tribunal has set up a committee to look into the grossly polluting industries located along the banks of Ganga and inform it about the quantum of sewage discharged by them in the river.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar constituted the panel comprising member secretary of Central Pollution Control Board, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board, CEO of UP Jal Nigam, Director of Environment Ministry and a professor from IIT-Roorkee.
"The committee shall submit report on actual effluent discharge from each drain that joins Ganga and measure load on points where Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) are sought to be constructed under Phase-I B of the judgement (Haridwar to Kanpur)," the bench said while warning that if the directions are not complied with, it would impose heavy costs.

The green panel also asked the UP pollution control board to inform it about the industrial units of tannery, paper and pulp, textile, located along the banks of Ganga, to submit their stand before it.
It asked the committee to look into the issue of dead bodies of humans and animals being dumped into the river and submit its report within three weeks.
The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river into different segments -- Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Kanpur, Kanpur to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.

On December 11, last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on use of plastic of any kind from Gomukh to Haridwar along the river from February 1 and decided to slap a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamshalas and ashrams spewing waste into the river.