NGT slams Modi govt over Ganga pollution, says 'slogans contrary to actions'

Slamming the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments over pollution in the river Ganga in Varanasi, the National Green Tribunal on 18 January said "their slogans are contrary to their actions."

The Tribunal made the observations during a hearing after pictures of half-cremated bodies in the river near Varanasi were produced before it.

The NGT has asked the state and the Centre to file a reply by 27 January, asking them who should be held responsible for the rising pollution levels. Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency.

The green panel has been directed by the Supreme Court to act against industrial units polluting the Ganga.

In October last year, expressing unhappiness over the approach towards ensuring cleanliness of the river, the Tribunal had asked the Centre to name "one place where the condition of the river has improved".

"Rs 5,000 crore has been spent on the Ganga in making it worse from bad...out of the 2,500 km stretch of the river Ganga, tell us one place, where the condition of the river has improved," the court had asked.

Hoping to bring down the alarming level of pollution in the river, the Tribunal had last month ruled that plastic, in bags and other forms, will be banned on a 140 km stretch along the river starting February 1. The ban will apply to the stretch between Gomukh, where the Ganga originates, to Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has resolved to make the river "one of the cleanest in the world" by October 2018.

-PTI