Green bench wields hammer on absenteeism, says cost to be imposed for delays

The Ganga Action Plans 1 and 2 implementation case is being deliberated by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), but is being continually hampered by the absenteeism and late entries by officials summoned by the court on different issues.

Things came to such a pass that on April 17 Justice Swatanter Kumar, the chairperson of the bench—the others were Justices Jawad Rahim and Raghuvendra S Rathore (Judicial Members) and Bikram Singh Sajwan and Ajay A Deshpande Nagin Nanda (Expert Members)—was forced to take a roll-call of officers present.

The chairperson grilled some of the officers and counsels for being late and made it clear that from April 19, this matter would be listed on a daily basis at 12 noon and if any officer or counsel fails to turn up on time, a cost of not less than Rs 25,000 would be imposed.

The bench asked the various stakeholders to clarify their stand on drains No. 11 to 14, falling in area adjoining the city of Kanpur. Earlier, in a chamber meeting, the secretary Namami Gange had assured the bench that its officer will inform the bench about the minimum environment flow of the river Ganga.

The bench on April 17 had queried about the same. To that Gange started talked about the technicalities and the problems in coming up with certain figures. Before he could finish, the bench made it clear: “You can use scientists, wondrous person or even magicians, but we want a specific answer and the last day to answer is Wednesday.”

This clearly showed how the bench was not willing to put up with any more time-wasting tactics of the officials. The bench ordered the Ministry of Water Resources, Central Pollution Control Board & Ministry of Environment and Forests to come with their stand on the minimum flow of the river Ganga and extraction of ground water in segment B.

The bench also directed CEO, Tamil Nadu Water Investment Board, Director CLRI, Prof. Ramaswamy, Former Secretary Government of India and Member Secretary Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to be present before the tribunal for a chamber meeting to be scheduled on Friday.

Next hearing set for April 19.

—By India Legal Bureau