The National Green Tribunal today asked tanneries located on the banks of Ganga at Kanpur why they be not shifted to a "planned industrial complex" with complete infrastructure to prevent carcinogenic chromium from being discharged into the river.
Chromium is used as tanning agent to harden animal hides in leather industries.
The green panel also sought total number of leather units operating at the tannery hub at Jajmau in Kanpur including closed ones in order to ascertain their functioning and quantity of effluent discharged.
"We direct tanneries to take clear instructions as to why they be not asked to shift to a planned industrial complex with complete infrastructure and also inform the tribunal how many tanneries are there in Jajmau in Kanpur and how many are lying closed.
"Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) shall also take clear instructions how many tanneries have installed online monitoring systems. Ministry of Environment and Forests shall also take instructions on the issue of zero liquid discharge and online monitoring systems," the bench said.
During the proceedings, Vinod Tare, a professor of IIT Kanpur, was present who told the bench that the first report on Ganga was submitted in 2010 by a consortium of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology of Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee.
He said consortium of the seven IITs had concluded that failure of Ganga Action Plan-I was due to multiplicity of authorities and lack of data collection.
UPPCB told the bench that there are a total of 400 tanneries in Kanpur, out of which 233 are operational while 128 units are lying closed.
The tribunal has now fixed the matter for hearing on December 1.
The tribunal had earlier slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over the issue of shifting of tanneries located on the banks of Ganga in Kanpur to some other place to stop discharge of effluents, saying, "it can't behave like a king".
On November 15, the tribunal had stopped the government from spending "a single penny" for Ganga rejuvenation work between Haridwar and Unnao, saying a whopping Rs 20,000 crore was being spent on the entire national project by officials who did not even know about the river.
The green panel has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments -- Gomukh to Haridwar (Phase-I), Haridwar to Unnao (termed as segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to Bay of Bengal.
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