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Take action against units polluting Ganga, Supreme Court tells National Green Tribunal

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Segregating the issues emerging out of polluting industries from the main plea for cleaning of holy river Ganga, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the National Green Tribunal to deal with 17 highly polluting industries which discharge effluents into river. The court said the the NGT could even snap water and power connections to the polluting units.

The court, which expressed concern over the pollution level of the river due to industrial discharges, also granted six months' time to the tribunal to dispose of the matters and sought for a compliance report by December 10.

It rapped the state and central pollution control boards for their failure to punish erring units saying "this is an institutional failure and your story is a complete story of failure, frustration and disaster."

A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur also said "You need to stand up against the polluting units. It will take another 50 years if the task is left to you," and gave a free hand to the tribunal to take action against such units including forcing them to shut down.

It said the tribunal needs to be entrusted with the task as the Pollution Control Boards have failed in their duty to take action against polluting industries

The apex court, however, said that it will keep on monitoring the issue relating to discharge of domestic effluents into the river which is being dealt by municipal bodies of the concerned states. "We regret to say that intervention of the court and its sustained efforts notwithstanding has led to no fruitful result," the apex court, which has been monitoring the Ganga clean project for the last three decades.

The Centre already submitted a list of 17 highly polluting industries which included pharmaceuticals, Inorganic, Organic, Fertilizers, Oil refinery, Pesticides, Distillery, Sugar, Pulp and Paper, Bleaching, Dying and Textile, Slaughter house, Tannery, Food and Diary, power plants, automobile, locomotives.

The Supreme Court is hearing a public interest litigation on the cleaning of the Ganga in 1985.

Cleaning Ganga was not only BJP's election agenda but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Lok sabha member from Varanasi, based on the banks of the river, has pledged to clean the river. He also sought involvement of NRIs in the project during his trip to the US.

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