The National Green Tribunal today directed the Uttarakhand government and National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) to give details about the financing of schemes for the Clean Ganga project.
"We direct the Uttarakhand and National Ganga River Basin Authority to answer the query what is your financing scheme for clean Ganga project," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar said.
The green panel reserved its verdict on segment 1 of Phase 1 (from Gaumukh to Haridwar) and said it will pass necessary directions on the issue of cleaning of Ganga tomorrow.
During the brief hearing, the bench pulled up the officials of Uttarakhand for giving unverified data regarding sewage system in various towns of Uttarakhand situated on the banks of river Ganga.
"Its very easy to get the data from the computer. Can any of the officials claim that these data are physically verified by anyone or agency. Schemes are being made without any actual verification of statistics from the ground," the bench said.
Meanwhile, the green panel also constituted a committee to collect the samples of affluent discharged in the river Ganga in segment 2 of Phase 1 (from Haridwar to Kanpur) by the "seriously polluting industries".
"All the sugar, paper, textile industries and tanneries situated on the banks of river Ganga are seriously polluting the environment and the river," the bench said.
It constituted a committee comprising member secretary Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), member secretary of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board (UPCB) and Professor from IIT-Kanpur.
The panel directd that the committee shall collect affluent samples both at the inlet and outlet points of discharge into river Ganga.
"The committee shall also collect samples from sugar, paper, textile industries and tanneries which are not discharging affluent into conveyer belt and claimed to follow zero discharge method," the bench said.
The panel said that the committee should also examine the quality of water on river Ganga downstream and directed that the samples should be analysed by IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Delhi and CPCB and comparitive analysis report be filed within two weeks.
