On
June 30, 1997, Rakesh K. Jaiswal of Eco Friends wrote a letter
to Justice Girdhar Malviya of Allahabad High Court concerning
pollution in Kanpur and requesting his intervention. The letter
was treated as Writ Petition (No. 21552/97) under Public Interest
Litigation (PIL) in the court case relating to R.K. Jaiswal (on behalf of Eco-Friends) vs. State of UP and others.
The court has issued several important orders as a result of this
letter.
December
16, 1997
Court
forms monitoring committee: The monitoring committee formed by
the court visited Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mirzapur and Gazipur
in the first phase and Hardwar, Dehradun, Rishikesh and various
towns of western UP in the second phase. The committee visited
various GAP schemes and polluting industries of these towns. The
committee submitted its report in two parts. The court passed
orders and issued directions to the concerned government departments
and notices were served to various industries. Rakesh K Jaiswal
of Eco-Friends was one of the members of the monitoring committee.
March
6, 1998
Uninterrupted
Power Supply to GAP assets: The court went to the extent
of ordering that all the GAP assets such as wastewater treatment
plants, pumping stations, crematoria etc. be given an uninterrupted
power supply just as the Governor’s house and Legislative
Assembly do. In response to the above order, a separate power
supply was arranged for various GAP assets but this arrangement
could not last long due to non-payment of electricity bills.
Cleaning
of Buriha Ghat: Special Task Force was formed under the
chairmanship of District Magistrate, Kanpur City to make Buriha
Ghat pollution free. The Buriha ghat in Jajmau is a cremation
ghat. Hundreds of people visit this ghat every day to cremate
their dead. As a ritual, people take a dip in the river and aachaman
(mouthful) after cremation. But this ghat had two glue factories
that used to boil the leather remains as raw material with goat
and buffalo tails as fuel. The entire ghat was strewn with animals'
flesh, carcasses, heaps of bones etc. In the wake of court order,
the glue factories were demolished and removed. The situation
at Buriha ghat has improved following the demolition of the factories.
Two tanneries at Buriha ghat were also closed which were found
to be running without Primary Effluent Treatment Plant (PETP).
Formation
of River Police: The court directed that the Senior Superintendent
of Police, Kanpur Nagar, should immediately set up a River Police
Force to patrol the river and ensure that no dead body be thrown
in or any illegal activity be carried out along the course of
the river.
March
24, 1998
Court
identifies areas of key concern: The court directed immediate
action on three areas of key concern: the increase of fees at
the State sponsored crematoria to help defray costs of operation,
the formation of action plans devised by the Jal Nigams of Kanpur,
Allahabad and Varanasi for fool-proof tapping of nalas specified
under GAP-I, and again accentuated the importance of river police
to enforce existing laws. The court also directed the UP Pollution
Board to identify and immediately supply the court with a list
of all polluting industries along the Ganga from Haridwar/ Rishikesh
to Ballia within one week.
March
31, 1998
Increase
charges at government-run electric crematoria: The court
ordered all state-sponsored crematoria to standardaize the cost
of cremation to Rs. 500 per dead body. This increase is intended
to cover operating costs at the crematoria and allow any unclaimed
bodies to be cremated at no charge.
May
5, 1998
Formation
of High Power committee to ensure compliance: Upon the
suggestion of Eco Friends, The High Court formed a high power
committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary of the UP
Govt. The committee comprises many Principal Secretaries (Home,
Environment, Finance, Social Welfare, Power), and representatives
from State Pollution Control Board, Central Pollution Control
Board, and the Central Government. The committee was directed
to submit a fortnightly report in the court so that the court
could monitor the progress. Fortnightly reports were submitted
in the court for a few months but have been now discontinued because
of the inactivity of the Courts. This is a priority area for action.
Formation of Ganga Fund: The court also ordered
the formation of a Ganga Fund (in the pattern of the Prime Minister’s
Relief Fund), accepting 100% tax-exempt donations from the public,
in order to promote public participation and contribution in the
cleaning of the river. The Ministry of Environment and Forest
had taken an initiative in this regard and a formal proposal for
the creation of Ganga Fund was sent to the Ministry of Finance
for their approval.
Formation of River Police from existing police force: The court directed that the Senior superintendents of the police
create the river police from the existing police force in any
district inhabited by more than ten thousand people, with more
zones created in larger cities at the discretion of the superintendent.
The responsibilities of the river police were to include the enforcement
of rules prohibiting the litter of garbage or dead animals and
humans, open defecation, and the washing of clothes in the river.
May
20, 1998
Order regarding Lower Ganga Canal/Police & Tanneries: Police in Kanpur were again instructed to monitor the riverbanks
and enforce pollution regulations, as well as monitor tanneries
and their compliance with the directive to establish primary effluent
treatment plants. Those industries that had not complied with
this directive were ordered to be closed. This ultimately resulted
in the closure of 150 tanneries in Kanpur, 50 saree printing units
in Varanasi, 10 carpet dyeing units in Mirzapur, and 7 stone crushers
in Haridwar that did not have Primary Effluent Treatment Plants
(PETP)/ Pollution control measures. Several other industries were
served notices. The Court passed these closure orders at the demand
of Rakesh K Jaiswal as a petitioner wherein he submitted a list
of industries not having Primary Effluent Treatment Plants to
the Court.
July
09, 1998
Protecting
the Ganga at its source: The court also made Garhwal
Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) a party to this case. This order came
following a newspaper report that Gangotri Glacier (source of
the Ganga river) is shrinking fast and Ganga is polluted right
from the source at Gaumukh. The State Govt. was directed to construct
soak-pit toilets in the hilly regions along the Ganga. Now Garhwal
is in the newly formed State of Uttarakhand. The progress about
the implementation of above order is not known.
July
13, 1998
Monthly
Water Quality Monitoring: The court ordered the UP Pollution
Control Board to do a monthly monitoring of river water quality
from the user’s point of view unlike the previous method
of sampling water from the centre of the river. Thus, an effort
to improve the quality of water at bathing ghats and intake points
has been undertaken to ensure the safety of the users and communities
living along the banks and for all those directly or indirectly
dependent on river water. In the wake of above court order, the
State Pollution Control Board started monitoring the river water
quality as per the court order. Monthly reports were submitted
in the court for some months. The court also directed the Board
to make the test results public and in the case of Varanasi, to
display the water quality on various ghats. This order was implemented
and test results were displayed for a few months of the court
order.
Safe disposal of chrome-laden toxic tannery sludge from
Jajmu: In the wake of a court order, the Nagar Nigam
started removing the sludge from Jajmau area to the Rooma area
of Kanpur. In the beginning, around 800 odd truckloads of sludge
were disposed off over a sheet of plastic. This work now takes
place only haltingly. While there is money sanctioned to develop
a scientific landfill site for the disposal of toxic tannery sludge
in Rooma village, the work needs to be monitored continuously
and expedited. Until the waste is removed, it shall continue to
be a serious health hazard.
August
27, 1998
GAP Phase I Audit: The court nominated a team
of auditors led by Sameer Gupta (all senior Retd. Officers of
Indian Audit & Accounts Services) to investigate how the money
under the Ganga Action Plan Phase-I was spent. The audit team
has already submitted its report (3 volumes) to the court. The
audit report has found various cases of financial mismanagement
and wasteful expenditures and faulty planning of GAP. Government
has also filed its replies in 3 volumes.
September
16, 1998
Central
Technical Committee formed to oversee execution of GAP-II: The court directed the Central Govt. to stop the execution of
GAP-II till a Central Technical Committee was formed which would
approve the projects and oversee the execution of GAP-II. Central
government filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme
Court and got the above order stayed. As a result of the stay
order, the entire project is continuing.
October
13, 1998
Formation of local committees in GAP towns: The
court also directed the government to form local committees with
the participation of civil society in various GAP towns and maintain
transparency in GAP works.
The
Litigation is still going on. We are also requesting the court
to declare 200 meters of area on both sides of the banks as a No Development Zone and the same to be transferred to the
forest department for afforestation with the participation of
the affected communities. In fact, we have proposed that in the
entire Ganga cleaning program, wherever manual labor is required,
the affected communities and displaced people should be accorded
priority in employment. We are also requesting the court to direct
the Government to evolve a comprehensive policy for the urbanization
and industrialization along the Ganga. We want to stop virgin
land of Ganga (Flood plain/ River bed) from being colonized for
further urban development or industrial use. We also want the
court to issue directions to the Government to form a Ganga Vahini
(Task Force) involving those communities that are directly related
with Ganga and are dependent on Ganga for their livelihood.