NGT clarifies order on Ganga

The National Green Tribunal has clarified that Anita Roy will continue to be part of the 3-member committee, headed by former Uttarakhand High Court judge Justice U C Dhyani, to oversee rejuvenation work of the Ganga river.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said in a clarification sought by Roy, a former IPS officer and IIT representative, that she will also be paid honourarium by the Uttarakhand government.

"It is clarified that Dr Anita Roy will continue to remain part of the committee for Segment A as well as Segment B for Phase I, i.e. from Gaumukh to Haridwar and Haridwar to Kanpur. It is, however, made clear that honourarium will be payable only from one State equal to the current basic pay of the corresponding post which was held by her last which works out to Rs 2 lakh per month," said the bench.

"The travelling allowances/expenses will be payable by States of Uttarakhand/ Uttar Pradesh depending upon the area of travel," it said recently.

Meticulous monitoring and systematic approach was required for cleaning Ganga from Haridwar to Unnao, the tribunal had earlier said.

The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments Gomukh to Haridwar (Phase-I), Haridwar to Unnao (termed as segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.

The tribunal had earlier said the water of the Ganga, between Haridwar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, was unfit for drinking and bathing, and expressed anguish over the situation.

The green panel had said that innocent people drank and bathed in the river with reverence, without knowing that it may adversely affect their health.

It had directed NMCG to install display boards at a gap of 100 kilometres, indicating whether the water was fit for bathing or drinking.

Voicing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the Uttarakhand government to clean the Ganga, the NGT had on July 19 said the situation was extraordinarily bad and hardly anything effective has been done to clean the river.

The green panel, in a detailed judgment, had passed a slew of directions to rejuvenate the Ganga, declaring as 'No Development Zone' an area of 100 metres from the edge of the river, between Haridwar and Unnao.