Ganga Clean-Up
If Cigarette Packets Can Carry ‘Injurious To Health’ Warning, Then Why Not Polluted Ganga Water, Asks NGT
NGT also directed NMCG to display boards every 100 kilometres, indicating if the water of Ganga in that particular area is fit for bathing or drinking
New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal today said the water of the Ganga river, between Haridwar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, was unfit for drinking and bathing, and expressed anguish over the situation. The green panel said that innocent people drank and bathed in the river with reverence, without knowing that it may adversely affect their health.
“Innocent persons are drinking and bathing in the Ganga out of reverence and respect. They don’t know that it may be dangerous to their health. If cigarette packets can contain a warning saying it is ‘injurious to health’, why not the people be informed of the adverse effects (of the river water),” the NGT said.
The bench, headed by NGT chairperson A K Goel, said “we are of the view that on account of great reverence to great Ganga, innocent persons may drink and bathe without knowing that the water is unfit for consumption. It is of utmost necessity to comply with the right to live of persons using Ganga water and they are put to notice about the fitness of water.”
The green panel also directed National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) to install display boards at a gap of 100 kilometres, indicating whether the water was fit for bathing or drinking. It directed the NMCG and the Central Pollution Control Board to place on their website, within two weeks, a prominent map showing where the water was good for bathing and drinking.
Also Read: Hardly Anything Done To Clean Ganga, Situation Extraordinarily Bad: National Green Tribunal
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.