NGT directs chief secretaries of UP, U'khand to attend meeting

The National Green Tribunal today directed chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to attend a meeting this week for devising a plan for improving water quality in six districts of western Uttar Pradesh.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the chief secretaries to be present in the chamber meeting which is scheduled on September 10.
The direction came while hearing a petition filed by NGO Doaba Paryavaran Samiti which has alleged that ground water in six districts -- Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Bagpath and Ghaziabad -- was being polluted as a result of effluents being released underground by reverse boring by the industries.

The tribunal had earlier directed Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to analyse the chemical composition of the effluents generated by each industry in these districts.
It had directed Uttar Pradesh government to immediately provide clean drinking water in these six districts of the state through water tankers noting that even hand pump water was contaminated.
The plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, had alleged negligence on the part of the state government and said that villagers and children of schools in the six districts were forced to drink contaminated water.
C V Singh, president of the NGO, had said that there were several rivers like Hindon, Kali and Krishna that pass through the villages of western Uttar Pradesh.

"Due to the effluents being discharged into the rivers by the industries located in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Meerut, the groundwater has become toxic and poisonous," he had said.