A Report Submitted by SPECIAL OFFICER, YOGESH KUMAR SAXENA, Advocate High Court, Chamber NO. 139, High Court, Allahabad

[yogesh saxena]

A Report Submitted by SPECIAL OFFICER, YOGESH KUMAR SAXENA, Advocate
High Court, Chamber NO. 139, High Court, Allahabad
CIVIL MISC WRIT PETITION NO. 4003 of 2006
HARCHETAN BRAHMACHARI VERUS STATE OF U.P. AND OTHERS
The Indian Constitution, unlike the American one, contains Articles
that declare the responsibilities of the state and its citizens to
protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and
wildlife. Legislation such as the Water Act and the Environmental Act
have established government agencies to oversee the regulation and use
of rivers and other natural resources and develop plans for the
control of pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board created by
the Water Act lays down environmental standards, while State Control
Boards inspect industrial and waste water treatment plants.
Constitutional provisions have also helped public interest lawyers
broaden the legal standing for environmental plaintiffs and keep the
issue of enforcement in public view.
Paradoxically, these and other laws have rarely been used against
individual or corporate polluters. It was not until the Supreme Court
of India began hearing public interest petitions in the late 1980s
that regulatory action gained any momentum. This occurred when public
interest petitions began charging that pollution was implicating a
public authority who had been vested with the responsibility to
prevent pollution but was not sufficiently executing its powers.
NEW DELHI: 10th October, 2006-The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up
Union environment ministry over its apathy towards river Ganga despite
the government coughing up over Rs900 crore on the Ganga Action Plan
(GAP), which promised to clean up the holy river.
The Comptroller and Auditor General had also unearthed lacuna in GAP
expenditures. Referring to 2002 CAG expose, the judges said: “In the
plan, crores have been marked as spent to improve the water quality,
but going by the report, the water quality has further deteriorated
and the industrial pollution has increased.”
A bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal issued notices to the
Ganges basin states — UP, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal,
Delhi, Haryana and MP — to file their status reports on the plan by
October 31. The SC noted that various government-appointment
committees also couldn’t ensure a cleaner Ganga.
A Central Ganga Authority headed by the PM, the Steering Committee
under the Secretary, Planning Commission, and the National River
Conservation Directorate are responsible for the maintenance of the
river.
“If this is the state of affairs of the scheme monitored by the court,
what will happen to those schemes which are not monitored by the
court,” the Judges observed, adding “same is the state of the river
Yamuna, for whose cleansing, hundred of crores of rupees have been
spent.”
Earlier in April last, the Allahabad HC took cognisance of a petition
by some Hindu religious leaders alleging neglect of the river by the
government. The HC had warned the state against uncontrolled flow of
sewage into the Ganga and asked the Mulayam Singh Government to submit
a report on the action taken by it.
As per a recent official report, only 39 percent of the primary target
of the GAP, which the Union government had started to cleanse the
river in 1986, could be met so far. The World Health Organisation says
one person dies every minute due to water-born diseases in the Ganga
river basin that’s home to some 400 million people, who depend on the
river afor livelihood and sustenance
New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday pulled up the
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for lapses in the
implementation of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) resulting in further
deterioration of the water quality on all parameters.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice C.K. Thakker
and Justice R.V. Raveendran took serious note of the non-
representation of the ministry during the hearing after the counsel,
Vijay Panjwani, informed the court that he was not willing to appear
for the ministry as there was no instruction.

Citing the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General for the year
ending March 2000, the bench expressed serious concern that over Rs.9
billion had been spent on the implementation of the GAP launched by
then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 but the water quality had
deteriorated instead of improving.

Similarly, the industrial pollution, instead of coming down, had
increased manifold.

The bench also found that the states involved in the project had
diverted the funds meant for the GAP for other purposes.

Giving one more chance, the bench directed the MoEF secretary to file
a fresh affidavit by Nov 15 giving the status of the plan as on Oct
31, 2006 by taking into consideration all relevant factors including
the CAG report.

Taking a serious view of the "callous and casual" attitude of the
government, the bench asked the MoEF secretary to ensure that the law
officers representing the ministry were given proper instructions when
they appeared in the court.

The bench also directed the chief secretaries of Bihar, West Bengal,
Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand to file status report on the
GAP by Nov 15.

Earlier, amicus curiae Krishan Mahajan informed the court that Rs.9
billion of public funds had gone down the drain and the quality of the
Ganga water had further deteriorated to the extent of making it unfit
for human consumption.

He said that in the absence of a proper implementation mechanism, all
efforts to cleanse the river had yielded no results.

The bench directed listing of the matter for further hearing in
November.
NEW DELHI: What is the point in setting up nodal bodies under the
chairmanship of the Prime Minister, who has little time to spare, as
no effective monitoring takes place, the Supreme Court asked on
Tuesday.

It was appalled by the dismal state of affairs pertaining to the
ambitious Ganga Action Plan (GAP) that has guzzled Rs 1,000 crore
without any perceptible change in the quality of the river's water.

When a Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justices C K
Thakker and R V Raveendran was informed that the nodal body was the
Central Ganga Authority headed by the PM, the Bench said, "The fault
lies in the beginning.

The body is headed by the PM, who obviously has no time to spare for
it." Referring to the Wildlife Board, which was also headed by the PM,
the Bench asked: "What is the point of such types of arrangements?"

Amicus curiae Krishan Mahajan, assisting the court in the matter, said
though nearly Rs 1,000 crore has been spent on GAP, the water of the
river, regarded sacred by Hindus, is today more polluted than it was
at the inception of the project in 1985.

What irked the court more was that though it had asked the Centre on
March 31 to file a status report on the expenditure and the lacunae
pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General, there has been
total silence on the part of the government.

On a close examination of the project, the Bench found a slew of
checks and balances mechanism in place but also noticed that no step
has been taken in the last five years to take any effective measure to
improve the quality of the river's water. To top it all, no lawyer was
present in the court to represent the Centre.

"In view of the total non-representation on behalf of the ministry of
environment and forest, we are at loss to know as to what effective
steps have been taken on the basis of CAG report," the Bench said.

It asked the MoEF secretary as well as the chief secretaries of the
Ganga basin states of Uttaranchal, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West
Bengal to file status reports on GAP up to October 31 by November 15.

Another petition filed by Ashoka Thakur alleged that pollution of
Ganga at Varanasi is posing a threat to preservation of Indian culture
intricately linked to the sacred river and its ghats. The Bench asked
UP's chief secretary to file his response within four weeks
KANPUR POLLUTION- MOST POLLUTED CITY IN THE WORLD

The industrial city of Kanpur has been named the seventh most polluted
city in the world, says a report in the "Time" magazine.
The latest issue of the magazine referred to a 2006 World Bank study
which placed Kanpur seventh in terms of air pollution and in a report
that detailed the most polluted places in four Asian countries, placed
the city on top.
Kanpur, which it said fares worst among all Indian cities, was
followed by Kitakyushu in Japan, Indonesian capital Jakarta and
Chinese city of Xiangshan.
A survey in 2004 had found Kanpur was the most polluted city in India
after Raipur, Jharia and Jalandhar, but in two years, due to a
burgeoning population and increasing number of diesel-run vehicles it
had surged to the top of the list.
The growing population of the city, it said, was one of the chief
reasons for the worsening air condition.
While the average population growth in the country between 1991 to
2001 was 21.3 percent, Kanpur had registered 32.5 percent. In the next
five years the numbers would increase by another five lakh, it said.
Transport vehicles and generators using diesel were adding to air
pollution, while sewage water and waste from tannaries was polluting
river Ganga.
City residents faced a range of problems from respiratory diseases and
from drinking the river water, the report said.
Converting diesel vehicles to run on compressed natural gas could help
lower air pollution in the near future, the magazine said while
lauding the steps taken by the residents of the city.
Ganga pollution should be made a poll issue: experts
VARANASI, MARCH 17. Even though the holy river Ganga is regarded as
the lifeline for crores of people, the pollution in the holy river has
never been made a poll issue, feel experts.
The Director of Research Foundation of Science, Technology and
Ecology, New Delhi and a well-known activist Vandana Shiva said here
that the politicians were not at all serious on the issue of Ganga
pollution despite the Gangetic belt sending maximum members to the
parliament.
She said it was unfortunate that many irrelevant issues were being
used on the poll plank but the pollution in Ganga was never
highlighted despite it being the main source of natural and mineral
resources and forming the vital Indo-Gangetic plain in the country.
Ms. Shiva alleged that the Centre had spent several thousands of
crores on the Ganga Action Plan but there were no signs of
improvement. She further alleged that the government was moving
towards the privatisation of water of the Indian rivers through mega
projects by connecting the rivers "under pressure from WB and MNCs".
According to records available, during the period of late Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a Swiss newspaper published a report which
defined the Ganga as the fourth most polluted river in the world.
Later, Mr. Gandhi called for cleaning of Ganga and set up the Ganga
Action Plan (GAP) which ultimately started on June 14, 1986 at
Rajendra Prasad Ghat in Varanasi but it is yet to serve the purpose.
Recently, the Society for Social Action and Research (SAR), an NGO,
said in its report that a regular dip in Ganga could lead to several
water-borne diseases. However, Ganga water is still considered holy by
the Hindus and is used in religious ceremonies and is deemed to
provide `punya' (virtue).
Incidentally, the former Prime Ministers, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru
(Phoolpur), Lal Bahadur Shashtri (Allahabad), Indira Gandhi (Rae
Bareli), Choudhary Charan Singh (Bagpat), Vishwanath Pratap Singh
(Fatehpur) and Chandrashekhar (Ballia) were elected MPs of the Gangtic
plain and were hailed as the `Gangaputras' (sons of Ganga) but the
river still reels under alarming hazards of pollution.
The journey of the river from Gomukh to Gangasagar stretching over
2,525 km is known by about 120 different names including Bhagirathi,
Hugli and Padma and passes through over five dozen districts from
where the maximum MPs reach the Upper House of Indian Parliament.
Anshul Shrikunj, president of Hardwar Based NGO, Bharat Jagrit Mission
trust accused the Centre and the Delhi government of giving a contract
to a French company `Swege Degromont' to drain 6,350 lakh litres of
water daily from Ganga and sell it in New Delhi to clean toilets.
The retired Professor of Banaras Hindu University, Veer Bhadra Mishra,
who represented the country in "Earth Summit" at Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, said that from 1986 to 1993, the Ganga Action Plan in its
first phase spent over Rs. 500 crore. He said the GAP has set up a
sewage treatment plant spending Rs. 50 crores at Dinapur, Varanasi to
treat sewage but for years the equipment did not function properly.
"With the limited power supply such plants virtually lie defunct," he
added. -- UNI
Water quality of Ganga improves from Rishikesh to Uluberia In West
Bengal

04 October, 2006

The Ganga river water quality has shown improvement over its pre-Ganga
Action Plan period water quality. A total of 259 projects of pollution
abatement covering 23 towns in three northern states have been
completed in GAP-I.Under this plan sewage treatment capacity of 865
million liters per day has been created. The composition of lean
season average (March to June) values for Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), the major indicators of water
quality, for 1986 and 2005 shows a perceptible improvement during the
period all along the stretch of river Ganga.

GAP I was formulated on the basis of a comprehensive survey of the
Ganga basin carried out by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
in 1984. According to the CPCB survey, the total sewage generated from
25 Class I towns in 1985 was estimated as 1340 million liters per day
(mld). A total of 261 projects of pollution abatement covering these
25 towns in three States were sanctioned under this Plan. The
remaining two projects of sewage treatment plants in Bihar (STPs at
Patna & Munger) are in the final stage of completion. The GAP I was
declared closed in 31st March, 2000.

The water quality monitoring of the river has been done by independent
reputed Institutes like Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Bharat
Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
Kanpur, Indian Toxicological Research Centre (ITRC), Lucknow, etc. It
is observed that inspite of a phenomenal increase in population in the
urban centers located upstream on the river Ganga, there is a
perceptible improvement in terms of BOD and DO of the river during
this period at all the major locations of the river.

After closing GAP- in March ,2000 ,Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) has provided technical assistance for the Development
Study relating to "Water Quality Management Plan for Ganga" with focus
along stretches of four towns namely, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad and
Varanasi. The study basically envisaged formulation of the Master
Plans and Feasibility Studies for the sewerage (including sewage
treatment) and non-sewerage components for the four towns . These
Master Plans and Feasibility Studies have been prepared by the JICA
Study Team in close collaboration and consultation with UP Government
and its concerned agencies in the four towns as well as taking into
account the work already done and presently being done in these towns
under National River Conservation Plan ( NRCP ).

The JICA Study Team had submitted the Master Plan and Feasibility
studies report for the sewerage and non-sewerage works in Varanasi
town in the first phase during 2004-05 based upon which the Japan Bank
of International Cooperation (JBIC) have signed an agreement with the
Government of India for providing loan for taking up the pollution
abatement schemes of the river Ganga in this town at an estimated cost
of Rs.540 crore (13.248 billion Yen). The final Feasibility Study
Reports for the remaining three towns of Allahabad, Kanpur & Lucknow,
after incorporating the comments of the concerned organizations, have
also been submitted by JICA. The project proposals for these three
towns have are with JBIC for funding and to be included in their
Rolling Plan package for FY 2006-07.

It is expected that the pollution abatement works in these four towns
with the assistance from JBIC in a phased manner, the water quality of
river Ganga would show further improvement in its polluted stretch
between Kannauj and Varanasi.Intensive work is being taken up between
Kannauj and Kanpur as pollution by large number of industries located
in these two towns is larger than any other area.
HINDUS HAVE LONG BELIEVED THAT THE WATER OF GANGA HAS A SPECIAL PURITY
Hindus have long believed that the water of Ganga has a special
purity. Studies conducted in 1983 on water samples taken from the
right bank of the Ganga at Patna confirm that escheria coliform
(E.Coli.), fecal streptococci and vibrio cholerae organisms die two to
three times faster in Ganga than in water taken from the rivers Son
and Gandak and from dug wells and tube wells in the same area.
However, despite the natural resilience of the Ganga, the alarmingly
high volume of pollution poses an ever increasing threat to the health
and life of the river.
The principal sources of pollution in the Ganga are domestic and
industrial wastes. Conservative estimates put the effluents flowing
into Ganga at approximately 1.7 billion litres each day out of which
1.4 billion litres is untreated.
The Ganga basin is home to over 300 million people, out of which 20
million live in densely populated cities directly along it banks. Most
of the urban centres lack proper sewage treatment facilities. 88% of
the pollution originates in 27 cities located along the banks. While
industrial pollution accounts for only about a quarter of the whole
problem, it is by no means insignificant since most of it is
concentrated in specific areas and the effluents are more hazardous.
The state of Uttar Pradesh alone is responsible for over 50% of the
pollutants entering the river along its entire journey to the sea.
Domestic and industrial pollution, combined with deforestation, use of
pesticides and fertilisers and other factors, have rendered the water
of Ganga unfit for drinking or bathing.
Upstream from Varanasi, one of the major pigrimage sites along the
river, the water is comparatively pure, having a low Bio-Oxygen Demand
(B.O.D.) and Fecal Coliform Count. However, once the river enters the
city these levels rise alarmingly. Measurements taken at the city's
various bathing ghats during a few years ago show that the average
B.O.D of the water rises by over 1300 percent. The average Fecal
Coliform Count at the ghats is over 6000 times what it is before the
river enters the city.
The Ganga Action Plan launched in 1986 by the Government of India has
not achieved any success despite expenditure of over five billion
rupees. Even though the government claims that the schemes under the
Ganga Action Plan have been successful, actual measurements and
scientific data tell a different story.