SPECIAL OFFICER, YOGESH KUMAR SAXENA criticised coughing up over Rs900 crore on the Ganga Action Plan (GAP)

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: 10^th 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.