A bench of the National Green Tribunal headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar on Thursday issued a 543-page verdict, declaring the area near Ganga as no development zone in an attempt to clean and rejuvenate the river.
An area of 100 meters from the edge of the river between Haridwar and Unnao are marked as no development zone and dumping of waste within 500 meters from the river is also prohibited according to the new statement issued. Anyone found dumping waste in the marked areas will be charged with a penalty of ₹50,000 as environment compensation charge.
The NGT has also issued a list of directions to the concerned departments to complete all the projects related to cleaning the river, including the setting up of a sewage treatment plant and cleaning drains, within two years. NGT also asked the Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand governments to issue guidelines regarding the formulation of religious activities on the ghats.
Tne tribunal has also appointed a supervisory committee to ensure that the instructions issued by NGT are being followed and implemented properly. The committee is headed by Secretary of Water Resources Ministry, and also includes IIT professors and officials from the Uttar Pradesh government. The committee is also instructed to submit the progress reports at regular intervals.
The panel has divided the work of cleaning the river in different segments — Gomukh to Haridwar (Phase-I), Haridwar to Unnao (termed segment B of Phase-I), Unnao to border of Uttar Pradesh, border of Uttar Pradesh to border of Jharkhand and border of Jharkhand to the Bay of Bengal.
Centre has allotted over Rs 2,000 crore under the “Namami Gange” program for the purpose of cleaning Ganga river. The tribunal also warned 14 industrial units operating in Bijnor and Amroha districts on the banks of Ganga for polluting the river to be ready to be shut down soon if they did not stop the water pollution.