Clean Ganga: NGT Puts 50K Cost On Polluters, No Development Near River

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday prohibited dumping of waste within 500 metres of the river Ganga while announcing an environment compensation of RS 50,000 to be paid by defaulter.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar also declared area of 100 metres from the edge of Ganga between Haridwar and Unnao as " No Development Zone"

While directing all states concerned to implement various measures and directions to clean Ganga within two years, it told Uttar Pradesh to shift all tanneries from Jajmau in Kanpur.

Besides, it directed the UP and the Uttarakhand government to regulate religious activities on and in Ganga and it's tributaries.

The NGT judgement comes on a PIL by environment activist and advocate M C Mehta. He had initiated the PIL in 1985 and it came to be transferred to the NGT by the Supreme court in 2014.

The NGT has divided the work of cleaning Ganga in different stretches -- from Gomukh to Haridwar, from Haridwar to Unnao and then from Unnao to UP border. Thereafter, it will look at the stretch from UP border to Jharkhand and then to Bay of Bengal.