Effluent discharge:NGT orders CPCB to upload report on website

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) today directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to upload its on its website a report with regard to "seriously polluting industries" on the bank of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna.
A bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, directed CPCB to upload the report prepared by a committee set up by NGT, comprising members from CPCB and UP Pollution Control Board, and the Local Commissioner within three days.
"We direct the Central Pollution Control Board as well as the Local Commissioner to put the report prepared by the committee and as well as the Local Commissioner on the website of CPCB within three days from today.

"All the industries, which are mentioned in the respective report, should accept notice through the website and file their replies/objections to the report, if any, within ten days thereafter," the bench said.
The Tribunal had on August 6 directed CPCB and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to conduct a joint inspection of seriously polluting industries which have not installed any anti-pollutant devices on the bank of both the rivers.
It had also appointed advocate Aagney Sail as the Local Commissioner in the matter and directed him to submit a report separately.

The bench had also directed the committee to give a separate list of all the sugar and distillery units functioning on the banks of the two rivers and say whether they are discharging their effluents into the river.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by UP resident Krishan Kant Singh who contended that the stretch of Ganga from Garmukteshwar to Narora was being polluted due to discharge of highly toxic and harmful effluents by sugar mills as well as dairy firms.
The petition had also said that the effluents released into the river were not only contaminating the water but also threatening endangered aquatic species like dolphins and turtles.
It had also stated that according to a report prepared last year after testing the waters of the river, the levels of effluents like solid suspended matter, oil, grease and others were way above the permissible norms.

Singh had, in his petition, also alleged the ground water in the areas surrounding sugar mills and dairy firms have been contaminated due to their discharge.