By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the central government and five states to explain how they had used more than Rs.10 billion meant for cleaning the river Ganga whose water quality had only deteriorated further.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran sought the account of the funds after senior counsel Krishan Mahajan, assisting the court in monitoring the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan aimed at cleaning the river and going on since 1985, told the court that the quality of the river water had only worsened.
Mahajan alleged that over Rs.10 billion given by the central govenrment to the five river basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for arresting the pollution in the river appeared to have simply gone down the drain.
Wondering if the funds had been misappropriated by any unscrupulous elements, the bench asked the central and the state governments to file the utilisation certificate of the money.
The court has taken up the monitoring of the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan on a public interest lawsuit.
Mahajan also told the bench that hundreds of sewage treatment plants installed along the river’s course had stopped functioning due to the lack of electricity supply.
Counsel for the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) suggested setting up oxidation plants along the river for cleansing its water, saying they do not run on electricity and they do not require costly imported machineries for their operations.
At this bench asked the government to examine the feasibility of setting up such plants.