The mission to clean River Ganga got its first priority fixed on Wednesday when the Supreme Court decided to get cracking on grossly polluting industries discharging chemical waste into the river. The court asked the Centre and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to suggest by October 29 what action was taken against the heavily-polluting industries which were inspected and found to violate the “zero discharge” norm.
With the CPCB being the nodal agency in the country having power to even seal polluting units, the court was surprised to know that the statutory body is headless for the past six months. The Bench, headed by Justice TS Thakur, asked Solicitor General Ranjeet Kumar to file an affidavit indicating why there was delay to appoint CPCB chairman and sought a timeframe to fill the vacancy. The Centre was also asked to indicate progress made in its meeting with all State pollution control boards on September 18 this year to ensure real time effluent monitoring system in all cities that touch Ganga water.
The CPCB, which has a dedicated National Ganga River Basin Authority Cell, had recently identified 764 grossly polluting industries in the States where Ganga flows. CPCB counsel Vijay Panjwani informed the court that in 222 cases, action was in process with the majority units in Uttar Pradesh (215), one unit in Bihar and six in West Bengal.
The Bench, also comprising Justices Adarsh Goel and R Banumathi, asked the CPCB to indicate the progress made in this regard. "If units which are to have zero discharge are still functional, the fact is that they have bribed. This is breeding corruption. So many heads should roll in this matter," the Bench indicated.
The court even sounded critical of the Centre's Ganga Action Plan being of the view that there was need to prioritise the mission or else the matter would be kept hanging for years. The court felt that a technical person having a vision for Ganga ought to be on board and wondered if Delhi Metro's E Sreedharan could have been a fit choice to provide technical assistance to the team handling the project.
At one point during the hearing, the Bench even proposed to constitute a committee of experts drawn from fields of administration and environment engineering to monitor implementation of Clean Ganga targets. But the Bench observed, “The CPCB should wake up and perform its function. After all, crores is being spent on their salaries.”