Above: The Hindon, one of UP’s most polluted rivers/Photo: Anil Shakya

In a shocking case of an unresponsive government, UP has wound up river and solid waste monitoring panels appointed by the NGT, thereby throwing all caution to the winds as far as environment goes

By Atul Chandra in Lucknow

River and solid waste monitoring committees appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) will soon cease to exist in Uttar Pradesh as they have become an eyesore for the bureaucrats and the State Pollution Control Board.

Justice (retired) SU Khan, chairman of the committee monitoring pollution in the Hindon river, has resigned due to “non-cooperation” from the state government. Although Justice Khan said he had been given “a new assignment by the Allahabad High Court”,
non-cooperation from the state government must have pushed him to quit the panel.

Like Justice Khan, the chairman of another panel too has felt frustrated at the non-cooperative attitude of the government and its babus for whom there’s illegal wealth to be made from dying rivers and stench-releasing, pollution-causing solid and hospital waste.

Bureaucrats, who have been found wanting in keeping the cities and rivers clean, find the committees “too intrusive”. A senior spokesman of the government, on condition of anonymity, said that wherever the committee went, officers felt harassed as they had to leave important work to be with the monitoring team. “The panel was being over-assertive,” he said, adding that after several complaints it was decided to do away with them.

If Justice Khan has decided to quit, in the case of the Solid Waste Management Committee headed by Justice DP Singh, the state government has told the NGT that it does not need the panel and would do the monitoring itself. Chief Secretary Anoop Pandey informed the Tribunal on April 26, 2019 that “he himself” would “monitor the management of solid and bio-medical waste”. At this, NGT Chairman Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said: “After expiry of the six months term… the chief secretary may take a decision whether such committees are required to continue further.” The state government interpreted the order as applicable also to the river monitoring panel and its tenure could be cut short too. On July 4, the NGT issued a clarification to remove all doubts about which panel was being discontinued. “It is pointed out that by erroneous reliance on the said order the Chief Secretary has dissolved the committees dealing with different subjects in violation of orders of this Tribunal, constituting the said committees,” the NGT said.

Subsequently on July 27, the monitoring committee issued a press note asking people not to forward any more complaints. The note said: “General public is hereby inform (sic) that UP Government has terminated the ‘UP Solid Waste Management Monitoring Committee’ and its memorandum dtd 14 June, 2019, the general public is requested not to forward any complaint regarding Solid Waste Management, Plastic Waste Management, Bio-medical Waste Management, Construction and Demolition Waste…to the Monitoring Committee, Lucknow.”

The Justice Khan-led panel on the Hindon, one of the most polluted rivers in UP, reportedly found the “apathetic” bureaucrats “stonewalling” its recommendations and work. The panel, which was formed in August 2018, has so far submitted four reports and all of them accused the bureaucracy of
non-compliance and apathy. Due to heavy pollution in the Hindon and its tributaries, the Kali and Krishna, 50 lakh people in 154 villages face serious health hazards. In February this year, the NGT pointed out that in the last two years, 71 persons died of cancer and 47 were left bedridden in one village of Baghpat alone. After passing through seven UP districts, the Hindon merges with the Yamuna near Delhi.

The SU Khan committee said in its February 11 report that the state government did not cooperate in carrying out health checks of villagers affected by the polluted waters and was also not helpful in providing clean drinking water. But what was more damaging was the remark that out of 118 polluting industries identified for prosecution, 28 had got their suspensions revoked.

What may have led the government to wind up the panels is the responsibility it fixed on the “head of the government”. “Non-compliance of an order of this Tribunal is a criminal offence under Section 26 of the Green Tribunal Act, 2010 and in case of Government, Head of the Department is deemed to be guilty for such an offence,” the report stated.

Almost the same problem was faced by the committee headed by Justice DP Singh. “Nobody seems serious about solid and hospital waste. They are also least bothered about the Gomati River,” Justice Singh, who has imposed hefty penalties on the government and officers for lapses, said. In his final report on the poor health of the Gomati river, he said: “The chief secretary and other officers completely failed in their constitutional duties due to political interference and corruption” and recommended a Rs 100 crore performance guarantee penalty on the state government. The Tribunal is yet to clear the penalty.

On the solid waste front also the DP Singh-led committee had drawn the attention of officers concerned to take necessary steps for disposal. While the Lucknow municipal commissioner and the agency responsible for the task did remove the garbage from the Gomati’s banks, over a mile-long two parallel rows of garbage continue to pollute groundwater and the adjoining area in Kanpur’s Bhaunti.

In Lucknow’s Ghaila village also, where nearly 20 lakh tonnes of garbage has piled up over a decade, the problem persists. The state capital and Kanpur, incidentally, are among the country’s dirtiest and most polluted cities.

In January, this panel also pulled up Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s constituency, for improper disposal of bio-waste. The medical college, where nearly 400 children died of encephalitis in 2014, was found to be burning bio-medical waste on its campus. It was fined Rs 5 crore.

Justice Singh said in his report: “The system which has failed in the last 70 years wants to disrupt the control and initiatives of the Hon’ble NGT to monitor their functioning through judges of the High Court…For one or the other reason, it appears the sinister design of previous governments to pollute the environment is being intended to be sealed and stop the exposure of commission and omission of previous governments and its authorities because of which the oxygen level of Gomati is almost zero (below detectable levels).”

What is true of the Gomati is also true of solid waste. There’s money to be made by officials and the pollution control board who only have to look the other way and allow erring industries, hotels and restaurants to continue flouting the law. In some cases, even the UP Pollution Control Board, a watchdog to protect the environment, was penalised for failing in its duty.

The UP government’s petition in the Supreme Court challenging the NGT order on personal appearance of a senior bureaucrat over the delay in constituting the Govardhan Shrine Board is symptomatic of the malaise. Bureaucrats in UP are averse to taking orders, especially from retired judges, even if they are corrupt non-performers. Poor management of solid waste and river pollution may continue to imperil the lives of citizens so long as the bureaucracy and politicians are not made accountable.