The Allahabad High Court has expressed displeasure over the apathy of the government departments in making the river Ganga pollution free in Uttar Pradesh and said that the ambitious National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was throwing dust in the eyes and little work to clean the river was visible on ground.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta made the observations while hearing a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) pertaining to river pollution in U.P.
The court also added that the NMCG had become a machine to disperse money and no one was serious about cleaning the river Ganga.
Earlier on August 31, the court had asked the NMCG, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Jal Nigam and Nagar Nigam, Prayagraj to file affidavits till September 26.
But the High Court expressed dissatisfaction with the replies filed by the concerned departments. The court directed the departments to provide copy of the affidavit to the petitioners Vijay Chandra Srivastava, Shiv Kant Mishra and others, and also to Amicus Curiae Arun Kumar Gupta. The next date of hearing in the matter is November 1.
In the earlier hearings as well, the Bench had criticised the authorities and had remarked that, “We all know that thousands of crores of rupees have already been spent to clean river Ganga under Namami Gange Project but with hardly any result”.
Few months back, a different Bench under the Allahabad High Court, had remarked that the future of the country to a large extent will depend on the well-being of the river Ganga, hence it is “imperative to make every effort to revive and make it pollution-free”.
