SC pulls up govt,says your work on Yamuna pollution is ‘casual’

Infuriated that all the authorities were engaged only in pushing the burden on each other and filed “vague” affidavits to explain their stands,the bench said that it was giving the last opportunity to the Delhi and UP governments,besides their authorities like Delhi Jal Board (DJB),Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Noida Authority,to file affidavits in categorical terms to apprise the court if they were dumping effluents in Yamuna and if so,in what form — with or without treatment.

The court also asked the DJB to draw a map in consultation with Noida Authority to reflect the positions of the river in Delhi,Haryana and UP,and to show the points where any kind of waste or effluents were being discharged in Yamuna. The Jal Board was told to inform the court about water treatment plants and points across the river where it pumps water and treats it.

The Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee have been ordered to file their affidavits on the quantity of solid waste,industrial effluents and other wastes that get dumped in the river right from Panipat in Haryana till Ghaziabad in UP.

“It is shocking state of affairs that nobody is bothered about the river. Everyone behaves as if they throw nothing in the river. It is also shocking for the MCD to say they have nothing to do with the pollution in Yamuna even though they could be the biggest pollutants,” said the bench,making it clear that any failure to file affidavits will prompt them to take action against the officers concerned,besides “exemplary costs”.

The court also asked advocate Shiv Sagar Tiwari,counsel for the association of Noida’s Sector 14 residents who had filed this PIL 16 years ago,to put on record the orders whereby Bhure Lal Committee was entrusted with the task of monitoring the Yamuna cleaning plan. “We also make it clear that in our next order,we may not confine this petition to the ambit of the Bhure Lal Committee,” said the court,fixing September 18 as the next date of hearing.

The residents of Noida’s Sector 14 had filed the PIL,asking the court to ban the discharge of effluents from Delhi into the Shahdara-Ghazipur drain,which passes through several areas of Noida before it flows into Yamuna. In 1998,the apex court appointed a committee to look into the problem. Later,the court asked the pollution control authority to follow the measures suggested by the committee.

On the last date,the court had pulled up governments of Delhi and UP for failing to stop pollutants from flowing into Yamuna. It had also criticised poor co-operation between the two governments.