The "huge difference" in the data provided by separate government agencies on the exact number of industries operating on the banks of Ganga from Haridwar to Unnao today left the National Green Tribunal wondering as to which of these figures it should believe.
While the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) informed the tribunal that there are 6,385 industries, out of which 1,072 are "seriously polluting", the other government department gave an old figure of only 700 industries along the stretch.
Advocate M C Mehta, who has filed a petition for cleaning of the river, countered the claims of these agencies and said there are 1.47 lakh industrial units on this stretch.
Also Read
The huge difference in the total number of industries did not go down well with the green panel and the bench headed by its Chairperson Swatanter Kumar said, "How can the difference be such huge. We can agree if the margin is of few numbers. Even if we take the petitioner's figure to be one lakh, does this means 93,000 industries are in the air?"
The government departments and the petitioner gave the figures to the bench after it asked them about total number of industries in segment B which covers the areas from Haridwar to Unnao.
The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river into five segments -- Gomukh to Haridwar, Haridwar to Unnao (segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to the border of Uttar Pradesh, UP border to the border of Jharkhand and from there to the Bay of Bengal.
The bench's observation came when the counsel for UPPCB said there are a large number of industries which are actually not operating and are only registered online and from there the petitioner has taken the figure of over one lakh units.
A senior officer of the Directorate of Industries, UP, who was also present during the hearing, told the bench that they do not issue any certificate to industries which register online due to which they do not have the total figure.
To this, the bench said, "You know what ruckus you have created in UP. You have opened mass industries and we have to order their closure."
The bench posed three questions to all the departments concerned and sought their answers by tomorrow, which include "out of the 30 drains which join Ganga in the segment from Haridwar and Unna where will treatment plants be put up and how many of them already have Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) and how the authorities are going to treat it".
The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue tomorrow.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
