Polluting industries along a 500-km stretch of the Ganga between Kannauj and Varanasi might soon face the axe. Minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday told the chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board and member-secretaries of state pollution control boards to take immediate action to shut all industrial plants spewing their effluents into the river.
The minister advised them to use Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, under which the Centre is empowered to issue directives on the “closure of all industry” not complying with the law. The same clause was used to shut down Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills.
“Only when polluting industries face the threat of closure will they clean up their act,” the minister said, adding: “Industrial pollution contributes only 30 per cent of the pollution of the Ganga, but ordering the closure of industry will have an immediate impact.”
New sewage treatment plants (STPs) being set up in several cities on the banks of the Ganga will be operational in seven to eight years. Mr Ramesh emphasised the need to try out new technologies, including bio-remediation techniques in main interceptor drains.
“Environment must be treated as a health issue,” the minister added. “This will force people to act.”