A National Green Tribunal-appointed monitoring committee on the issue of cleaning of Yamuna river, in a recent report, has attacked the UP and Haryana governments, the Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Jal Board for their inaction.
Experts say that the Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the country.
Referring to a committee set up by the UP government for cleaning the Yamuna, the report stated, “The monitoring committee is of the view that no useful purpose has been served by setting up such a committee [by UP government] as the engineers seemed unaware of the seriousness of the severe pollution-related stretches that emanate from specific drains in UP.”
“When they attended the last meeting called by this the [NGT-appointed] committee on 04.04.19, they were completely unaware of the tasks they were required to perform and could contribute nothing at the meeting,” the report further said.
The green tribunal-appointed body also attacked the Haryana government in the report for their “laxity”. “NGT may consider reprimanding the officers of the Haryana Pollution Control Board for their inability to discharge their statutory functions and lack of any regulatory vigil or control over 96 industrial pollution and other activities like sand mining and building bunds on the Yamuna,” it said.
There are multiple drains which flow from UP and Haryana into Yamuna and pollute the river.
The NGT, in a judgment on January 13, 2015, on a case filed by Manoj Misra, formed the Maily Se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalization Plan, 2017, with a deadline to clean the river by March 31, 2017.
However, the deadline was not met and the green panel in July 2018 formed the monitoring committee, headed by former Delhi Chief Secretary Shailaja Chandra and retired NGT expert member B.S. Sajwan, to primarily implement the 2015 judgment.
Attacking the DJB, the report said, “NGT had directed setting up of 32 decentralised sewage treatment plants in its judgment dated 13.01.15. Even after four years not a single STP from this list of 32 STPs has yet been set up.”
The monitoring committee also lashed at the DDA over ten projects the latter is working on aimed at restoring the Yamuna floodplain.“Even in these project areas, there is ongoing litigation as well as large-scale encroachment and despite being under the DDA’s control on paper, there is no workable plan for retrieving the land encroached upon,” the report reads.
“From January 2019 till now there has been no activity on land abutting the DND flyover which has been attributed to non-availability of police support linked to Republic Day arrangements followed by the general elections,” the monitoring committee added.
