Supreme Court Wants to Verify the Ganga Clean-up Procedure as it Happens

Sep 24, 2014 Tushita Politics 0

After the government submitted a three-stage plan spanning 10 years to purify the river, the Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed that it expects the NDA government to commit to the programme and that the court will keep an eye on the proceedings.

The court also said that it wants the NDA government to give it a “commitment” that river Ganga will be cleaned in a phased manner and the court will keep a close watch on the executive’s efforts to revive the 2,500 km-long river.

The government responded by saying that the Centre’s efforts alone will not be enough to rejuvenate the river with a second lease of life, but it will also need the support from general public and five States on the basin of river Ganga river.

The hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and R. Banumathi with Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar presenting the government’s case.

The Solicitor General said that the “thought to keep the Ganga clean must come from within” for the general public, and moreover, the State governments in the five Ganga river basin States – Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal – should rise above political differences and chip in to save the Ganga.

Justice Thakur was of the view, “If you are committing yourself for a stage-wise clean-up, we want to verify what you are doing and how you are going to do it. If you wish, we will not disturb you further for a year. But, let’s say in October 2015, you should come back and tell us specifically what you did. We want you to commit to us. ”

Mr. Kumar said a commitment would be of no avail unless the five Ganga basin States also commit. He said that the Centre, on its part, can only make the project and give funds to the States and it is primarily the responsibility of these States to implement the clean-up.

“The States should also commit as I (Centre) am committing to this court to clean the Ganga. Otherwise, we will roll out the project and a babu sitting in some town will spoil our efforts,” Mr. Kumar said.

But Justice Thakur raised doubts about the Centre’s political equations with the five States. He asked, “All these five States… all of them are ruled by parties different from yours. Will they co-operate with you? You have a different combination in the Centre,” assuring that the court would do the necessary to aid the Centre’s efforts for Ganga.

It said the long-term plan is to “restore the wholesomeness of river Ganga in terms of defining concept of ensuring Nirmal Dhara, Aviral Dhara and maintaining geological and ecological integrity of the river”.

The government’s three-phase Ganga clean-up plan includes the following:

A tentative Rs. 51,000 crore project by the Ministry of Urban Development to extend sewerage coverage to 118 urban habitations spread across the river bank.
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to make all 1,649 grampanchayats located along the Ganga banks free from open defecation.
Enforcing zero liquid discharge from “grossly” polluting industries located across the five Ganga river basin States.

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Tushita

Tushita is a political writer at thenational.net. Her deep rooted interest in politics, passion for writing and craze for travelling define her. Writing since her school days, she aspires to write lifelong and make the world a happier place to live with the power of her pen.