The Supreme Court on Tuesday rued that despite over `12,000 crore being spent on the project to clean the Yamuna, the river continues to remain in a “sorry state” and resembles a drain due to lack of cooperation among civic authorities.
A bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and M.B. Lokur directed the government to explore the possibility of routing drains of NCR region to a place outside Delhi could be explored to stop release of waste in the river. “Can we take these drains 30-40 km outside Delhi to get it recycled by removing solid waste. It should be routed in a closed drain to a place where government gets sufficient land for the project,” the bench said, adding that assistance from directors of IIT Delhi and Roorkee should be taken for the project. The bench asked the directors to be present on the next date of hearing to assist the court for proper implementation of the project.
Observing that the Yamuna in Delhi carries not water but drains, the bench rapped the government for not being able to clean the river despite spending thousands of crore of common man’s money. Around `12,000 crore has so far been spent by all the stakeholders for cleaning the river. The bench said that there is lack of cooperation among various government depar-tments involved in the Yamuna cleaning project.
“It’s a sorry state of affairs and Yamuna cannot be cleaned with such attitude,” the bench remarked when the counsel appearing for Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) made allegations against each other. “There is lack of cooperation among public authorities and the situation of Yamuna has become worse,” the bench said.