Acting on the Uttarakhand High Court’s order, the Nagar Nigam authorities have slapped show- cause notice on 79 local organisations which are allegedly polluting the Ganga by directly dumping their waste water into the river through unauthorised sewerage connections. They have been asked to fulfill the requirements within 24 hours or else the units would be sealed by the civic body authority. The decision followed a meeting attended among others by the city magistrate and members of Ganga Pollution Control Unit, Environmental Pollution Control Unit and Ganga Anurakshan Unit aside from the civic body officers.
Notably, a public interest litigation (PIl) was lodged in the High Court following the hearing of which the court ordered action against the hotels, ashrams, dharamshalas and other organisations which are operating while flouting the norms of National Green Tribunal by dumping their waste water directly into Ganga without treatment. The court also expressed concern over nothing being done by way of punitive action to stop such organisations from polluting the Ganga with impunity. Following the order, the Nagar Nigam prepared a list of the errant organisations. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Pandey said, “We have identified 70 such units which have unauthorised sewerage connections and have not taken NOC from the department. They have been issued show- cause notice.
If satisfactory response is not received from them within the stipulated 24 hours we would start sealing them.”