Thirteen years after a complaint was filed against him, the owner of a dyeing unit has been charged by a city court with releasing untreated effluents into drains leading to the Yamuna River.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Devendra Kumar Sharma charged the owner of the unit in Old Delhi under various provisions of the Water Act while prima facie it was established that he was discharging untreated effluent into drains in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and the Water Act and had no permission to run the unit. The order came on a complaint filed 13 years ago by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) against Siyaram Dyeing, run by accused Shyam Sunder Saini.
The DPCC counsel MS Jitender Gauba told court that after the Supreme Court banned release of untreated waste into the Yamuna, a vigilance squad formed on February 18, 2000, by the Delhi Government, carried out an inspection of Siyaram Dyeing at Sitapuri in Old Delhi. It was found operating without any Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and discharged coloured effluents into the drains. They were also operating without the consent of the DPCC, as mandated under the Water Act. An order to close the unit was passed following a complaint where court was told that Saini deliberately flouted guidelines issued by the Supreme Court to install ETP. If proven guilty, he could face a maximum of six years jail term and fined under the Water Act.