Expressing disappointment over high levels of pollution in the Yamuna, the Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments for little being done in the past 18 years for cleansing the river despite over `4,400 crores being spent for the purpose.
“All the agencies have spent crores of rupees. What is the purpose? What work has been done ultimately?” said a bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and M.B. Lokur.
The court also appointed a two-member expert committee, comprising a member each from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi Jal Board, to determine what has been achieved so far by the governments in their attempt to detoxify the river. The bench also asked the committee to examine the feasibility of blocking the drains which discharge untreated waste water into the river and submit its report by November 9, the next date of hearing.
The bench, meanwhile, directed the Centre to place before it the Yamuna Action Plan.
The apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the endangered state of the Yamuna, on the basis of newspaper reports, way back in 1994.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench lamented that despite huge amount of money being spent by the Centre and the concerned states to set up several sewage plants for treating the effluents being discharged into the Yamuna, the river water still had a high pollution rate. It has also sought a report from the committee regarding the working condition of these plants and whether untreated waste can be stopped from being directly drained into the river.
The UP and Delhi governments, along with DJB and the New Delhi Municipal Committee, had recently submitted before the apex court that they have together spent `4,439 crores in the last 18 years to implement the apex court’s directions to make the river water potable. The submission was made before the court pursuant to its order directing UP, Delhi and the Haryana governments to specify the exact amount of money spent on the river cleaning.