NGT Issues Notice To All States’s Chief Secretary, MoJS Seeking Compliance Report On Directions Issued For Checking Pollution In Rivers

Observing that directions issued in 2020 on checking pollution in the rivers “are required to be complied with by all the states”, the principal bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice to the Chief Secretary of all states and Secretary of Ministry of Jal Shakti seeking a compliance report.While noting that the material pointed out by the applicants indicate that the order of the Tribunal has not been implemented by all the States in true letter and spirit till now, the bench of Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Dr. A Senthil Vel said, “Hence, we issue Notice to Chief Secretaries of all the States and Secretary MoJS with the direction to submit the report in respect of compliance of above order of the Tribunal.”The development came after an application was filed seeking execution of its earlier order on controlling pollution in the rivers.The applicants submitted that, “Assam lacks treatment facility for 437.23 MLD of sewage generated and there is slow progress in implementation of three STPs at Silsakoo Beel (65 MLD), Borsola Beel (62 MLD), Paschim Boragaon (60 MLD) at Guwahati and eight STPs of total capacity of 47.5 MLD at Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, Tinsukia and Mangadaloi and implementation of 30 Stand-alone FSTP in 30 towns. However, the number of polluted river stretches has decreased from 44 in 2018 to 10 in 2022 and a new stretch in priority-V in Tocklai River along Kumar Kaibarta, has been added.”It was further added that in Bihar the number of polluted river stretches have increased from 6 to 18 with water quality of river Sirsa degrading from “priority III to II.”Considering the submissions the Tribunal noted that in the order which is sought for execution, directions issued in 2020 were reiterated by NGT.The set of fifteen directions includes the following:i) All the States/UTs may address gaps in generation and treatment of sewage/effluents by ensuring setting up of requisite number of functional ETPs, CETPs and STPs, as directed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in (2017) 5 SCC 326.ii) The timeline for commissioning of all STPs fixed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, i.e., 31.03.2018, has long passed. The Hon’ble Supreme Court directed that the State PCBs must initiate prosecution of the erring Secretaries to the Governments, which has also not happened. This Tribunal was directed to monitor compliance and in the course thereof, we direct that compensation may be recovered in the manner already directed in earlier orders (See, Paras 5 and 6 herein), which may be deposited with the CPCB for restoration of the environment.iii) The unutilized capacity of the existing STPs may be utilized expeditiously.The States/ UTs may ensure that the CETP, ETPs and STPs meet the laid down norms and remedial action be taken wherever norms are not met.iv) It must be ensured that no untreated sewage is discharged into any water body. Prompt remedial action may be taken by the State PCBs/PCCs against non- compliant ETPs/CETPs by closing down or restricting the effluents generating activity, recovering compensation and taking other coercive measures following due process of law.Adding that the aforesaid directions are required to be complied with by all the States, the bench said, “Since, a larger issue in respect of the implementation of the orders by the different authorities on Pan India basis is involved, therefore, we entertain this Application as an execution application for execution of the order which has been finally passed in O.A. No. 673/2018.”The matter is posted to December 13 for further consideration stating that, “Let the Notice to the Chief Secretaries of all the States be served by the Applicants and affidavit of service be filed on the next date of hearing.”Appearance: Md. Imran Ahmad & Mr. Bharat Banvalikar, Applicants in PersonCase Title: News item published in “The Hindu” authored by Shri Jacob Koshy titled“More river stretches are now critically polluted: CPCB

NGT Issues Notice To All States’s Chief Secretary, MoJS Seeking Compliance Report On Directions Issued For Checking Pollution In Rivers

Aiman J. Chishti

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