NGT demands to know of steps against Ganga pollution

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the ministries of environment and power to apprise it about the steps taken by thermal power plants to avoid discharge of effluents and fly ash around the Ganga river.

A bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar, while hearing a plea of non-governmental organisation Indian Council for Enviro Legal Action, asked these central ministries to hold a meeting and submit an affidavit on the steps taken by the power plants against river pollution.

The tribunal earlier this year decided on an inspection of the most polluted stretch of the Ganga between Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to get a clear picture on the situation.

The green tribunal is hearing since February 6 a 32-year-old case of pollution in the river, after the Supreme Court forwarded the matter to it.

In April, the NGT ordered the shutting down of 13 polluting industries along the river and imposed penalty on several others.

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