The panel will comprise the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board member secretary and the Prayagraj district magistrate

The National Green Tribunal has formed a panel to ascertain the correct factual position and take remedial action regarding a petition claiming the discharge of polluted water into the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.

The tribunal was hearing a petition that said the Magh Mela is being organised till 8 March  this year in Prayagraj, but around 50 drains are discharging polluted water for about eight kilometres from the Rasulabad locality to Sangam—the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna.

It also claimed that around 10 sewage treatment plants are not functioning properly and that the river’s colour has become “blackish” because of the pollution.

A bench of National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said the plea raised “a substantial issue relating to compliance with environmental norms.”

The bench, also comprising Judicial Members Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Expert Member Afroz Ahmad, noted that the larger issue regarding the Ganga’s pollution and the issue of sewage discharge into the Yamuna and the Ganga is being considered by the tribunal.

But as the plea is regarding the ongoing Magh Mela, the bench said it is constituting a joint committee to look into the matter.

The panel will comprise the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board member secretary and the Prayagraj district magistrate, it said.

“The joint committee will ascertain the correct factual position, the truthfulness of the allegations, and take appropriate remedial action,” the tribunal said in an order passed on January 18.

It directed the panel to submit an action-taken report within two months.

(PTI)