The listening to of a plea highlighting air pollution in Yamuna on Wednesday led the Supreme Court to provoke a authorized course of towards air pollution of water our bodies by untreated sewage, with the courtroom registering a suo motu writ petition with regard to “Remediation of polluted rivers”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde stated, “We find that in addition to the issue raised by present petition, it will be appropriate to take suo motu cognisance with regard to the issue of contamination of rivers by sewage effluents and ensure that the mandate is implemented by municipalities as far as discharge of sewage into rivers is concerned.”
The bench, additionally comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, stated, “We deem it appropriate at this stage to start with the issue of contamination of river Yamuna” and issued discover to the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh; Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The courtroom directed CPCB “to submit a report identifying municipalities along the river Yamuna, which have not installed total treatment plants for sewage as per the requirement or have gaps in ensuring that the sewage is not discharged untreated into the river”. It additionally requested CPCB to “highlight any other source of prominent contamination within the limits of Municipalities” and to “submit priority-wise list of Municipalities, river stretches adjacent to which have been found to be most polluted”.
The courtroom identified that Article 243W of the Constitution vests municipalities and native authorities with the efficiency of features and implementation of schemes as could also be entrusted to them, together with these in relation to the issues listed in Twelfth Schedule — Item 6 of the Schedule contains “public health, sanitation conservancy and solid waste management”.
In the 2017 Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti v. Union of India case, it was directed that “norms for generating funds, for setting up and/or operating the ‘Common Effluent Treatment Plant’ as well as ‘Sewage Treatment Plants’ shall be finalised, on or before 31.03.2017, so as to be implemented from the next financial year of that date. It was directed that for the purpose of setting up these plants, the state government will prioritise such cities, towns and villages, which discharge industrial pollutants and sewer directly in rivers and water bodies”, the courtroom stated.
The bench was listening to a plea by Delhi Jal Board, alleging that Haryana was dumping untreated discharge within the Yamuna, resulting in a spike in ammonia ranges.
The courtroom stated the plea highlights a problem of nice significance not just for the general public however all residing beings dependent upon open floor water.
The courtroom appointed Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora as amicus curiae within the matter.
