Civic bodies, industriestold to submit action plan

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

Moving ahead with its plans to ensure compliance of the anti-pollution norms by polluting industries and municipal bodies located on the banks of Ganga by 2016, the Centre has asked municipalities and industrial units in five states through which the holy river passes to furnish action plan for sewage treatment and trade effluent within 15 days.

The National Mission on Clean Ganga (NMCG) has directed 118 municipalities and urban local bodies and 687 industrial units in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to furnish the action plans. Non-compliance can invite legal action, said officials.

The actions plan has to be submitted for construction, upgrade of sewage treatment plants (STPs), installation of effluent treatment plants, zero liquid discharge and real-time monitoring of the discharge of trade effluents by the industries.

In the case of non-compliance, the NMCG would take “all necessary steps and make necessary submissions before the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal”, besides other legal actions as may be deemed appropriate, the officials said.

Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti had recently told Parliament that polluting industries dumping effluents into the Ganga would have to show compliance with anti-pollution norms by 2016 or face closure. The failure to comply with norms would mean closure of the polluting units, she had warned. The tanneries at Kanpur in UP are among the highest sources of pollution in the river.

According to the West Bengal Government, the state tops in executing the clean Ganga mission schemes among the five states, including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, through which it flows.