The National Green Tribunal rapped Uttar Pradesh government for wasting crores of rupees of public money on Ganga rejuvenation and restrained it from spending on any major project except maintenance work on the stretch from Haridwar to Kanpur. The State of Uttar Pradesh and its authorities will not carry out any major project of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP)/Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) except maintenance of pipelines, without specific direction of the NGT.

• The bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The displeased green panel bench, which also comprised Justice U D Salvi, passed the order after Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and state authorities including UP Jal Nigam failed to state the total number of industrial units and the quantum of industrial waste discharged by them into Ganga.
• The tribunal, which is hearing final arguments by different stakeholders on mechanism to clean river Ganga in segment starting from Haridwar to Kanpur, said the authorities were spending large amount of money on various projects even without knowing the requisite details.
• On December 11 last year, the tribunal had imposed a complete ban on use of plastic of any kind from Gomukh to Haridwar along the river from February 1 and decided to slap a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day on erring hotels, dharamsalas and ashrams spewing waste into the river.

National Green Tribunal
The National Green Tribunal has been established on 18.10.2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues.