Ganga rejuvenation: NGT seeks compliance report

The National Green Tribunal has sought a compliance report on the steps taken by the Centre, UP and Uttarakhand governments to clean the river Ganga in the stretch between Gomukh and Unnao. A bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim directed the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam to submit a report on the number of drains joining river from Kanpur to the UP border. "It is submitted on behalf of the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam that reports are ready but they would like to exchange the same between each other to reach on a consent in the matter relating to number of drains and action to be taken in terms of the directions of the tribunal. Request is allowed. "In the meanwhile, the compliance report in terms of direction regarding the Segment B be filed before the tribunal after serving the same to all the parties," the bench said. The matter was posted for next hearing on March 12. The green panel, in a detailed judgement, had passed a slew of directions to rejuvenate Ganga, declaring as 'No Development Zone' an area of 100 metres from the edge of the river between Haridwar and Unnao and prohibiting dumping of waste within 500 metres from the river. The tribunal had earlier, in a detailed judgement, said the government has spent over Rs 7,000 crore in two years to clean the Ganga which still remains a "serious environmental issue". The order, running into 543 pages, said "till the demarcation of floodplains and identification of permissible and non-permissible activities by the state government of this judgement, we direct that 100 metres from the edge of the river would be treated as no development/construction zone between Haridwar to Unnao in UP." 'No-development zones' are areas where no construction including commercial or residential buildings can come up. It also imposed a complete prohibition on disposal of municipal solid waste, e-waste or bio-medical waste on the floodplains or into the river and its tributaries. The tribunal reiterated its earlier order of ban on mechanical mining in Ganga and said "no in-stream mechanical mining is permitted and even the mining on the floodplain should be semi-mechanical and preferably more manual.