Giving one “last opportunity” to civic officials to implement its May 8 order, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday came down heavily on civic bodies for not cleaning drains in the national Capital.
Warning Delhi Chief Secretary and the seniormost civic officials of coercive action like attachment of salary if they do not comply with its order on the matter, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar pulled up all civic bodies of Delhi after they failed to show a single drain cleaned by them in compliance with the green panel’s May 8 order.
“We make it clear that the seniormost authority of department concerned and Chief Secretary of Delhi will be personally responsible, besides bearing cost for non-compliance of the order in accordance with the direction of the court, which would include attachment of salary and coercive action,” the bench said.
Giving one “last opportunity” to officials to implement the order, the bench said, “Everybody cooks up a story and tells us something. You don’t have respect for law. If you have not done any work, you should have the courage to accept it.”
The NGT said that none of the parties, including various departments and Government of NCT, have complied with any of the May 8 directions. The tribunal said that even Haryana Government has not complied with its direction for establishment of sewage treatment plant (STP) at Gurgaon border where the drain from Haryana joins with the Najafgarh drain in Delhi.
The tribunal said that none of the municipal corporations of Delhi except for New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been able to show a drain which they have cleaned or dredged in compliance with the order. Neither have they shown that they fined any person Rs5,000 for throwing or dumping municipal waste into the drains. “However, on the joint request from all the parties, one last opportunity is being given in the interest of justice and in interest of larger public interest to comply with the order,” the tribunal said while posting the matter for June 8.
The green panel also asked the Revenue Department to transfer land to Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for setting up sewage treatment plants (STPs) in different areas and asked police to assist DJB in taking their possession. On May 8, the tribunal had restrained individuals, including the municipal corporation employees, from throwing or dumping any kind of waste into the drains in Delhi and ordered a fine of Rs5,000 for violating these directions. It had directed all municipal corporations to clean all the drains of any municipal or other waste.
It had passed a slew of directions for effective and expeditious implementation of its order for restoration of Yamuna in the national Capital. Observing that Najafgarh drain, its supplementary drains and the Delhi Gate drain, caused 63 per cent of Yamuna’s pollution, the NGT had directed DJB to take possession of all the required land within four weeks on which STPs should be constructed at the earliest. It asked DJB to provide desludging vehicles, which will collect sludge from the septic tanks in the colonies and take them to the nearest STP and directed that these vehicles should be provided with GPS to ensure proper collection.