CB BureauAbout 165 industries that are located along the Ganga on a 450-kilometre stretch between Kannauj and Varanasi have been found violating the pollution norms as they are depositing sewage and industrial waste from factories directly into the river.
Doubting the efficiency of the state polution control boards, environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the chairman of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to take severe action against factories that are polluting the Ganga.
The minister said that the need of the hour is to reduce dependence of the CPCB on state pollution boards so that less time is required in taking action against industrial units that are violating the norms.
‘The CPCB has been asked to take appropriate action against the defaulting industrial units under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. We have asked the CPCB to get directly involved in cleaning the Ganga instead of relying on the state pollution boards to get concrete results,’ said the minister while speaking at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, on August 28.
It is to be noted here that after the two Ganga Action Plans failed to deliver good results in terms of cleaning the river, seven major IITs were roped in by the centre for finding ways to clean the national river.
The prime minister, who is chairman of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), had asked the ministry of environment and forest to involve IITs in the project. A MoU was signed between HRD and environment and forest ministries in New Delhi on July 6 this year. It was aimed at collaboration between the seven IITs and other technical institutions on one hand and the experts on the other hand.
After perusing a report submitted by IITs of Kanpur, Mumbai, Guwahati, Delhi, Kharagpur, Chennai and Roorkee, the union ministry of environment and forest had asked these institutions on June 10, 2010, to prepare a work plan for National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in the next 18 months. Although a proposal to this effect has been prepared and submitted to the ministry by the consortium of the seven IITs, Ramesh now wants to hold a review meeting every three months to discuss the progress.