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On the last date of hearing, the court had ordered the DG, NMCG to place details of the amount spent on cleaning river Ganga and the amount disbursed to UP for the purpose. Court had also sought details of the projects for which the amount was allocated to the UP Government.
In an affidavit filed before the Allahabad High Court, the Director General, National Commission for Clean Ganga has submitted that a total sum of Rs. 2942.92 crores has been released to the Government of Uttar Pradesh for various projects under Namami Gange Project.
The affidavit was filed in pursuance of the order dated August 31, wherein the high court had asked the DG to place the details of the amount spent on cleaning the Ganga and the amount allocated & disbursed to the State of Uttar Pradesh for the purpose. The court had also asked the DG to apprise it whether the amount disbursed to UP was spent for the purpose assigned or not.
However, the bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Ajit Kumar observed on September 26, that the details of the projects for which the funds were released and the status of completion thereof had not been furnished in the affidavit filed by the DG, NMCG.
Court noted that counsel appearing for Union of India sought more time to file a comprehensive affidavit.
Apart from that, the Central Pollution Control Board, U.P. Pollution Control Board, U.P. Jal Nigam (Rural), U.P. Jal Nigam (Urban) and Nagar Nigam of Prayagraj and Varanasi also filed affidavits in the instant batch of Public Interest Litigations pertaining to river pollution in UP.
However, since the copies of the affidavits were not handed over to counsel appearing for various parties in the case therefore they were unable to offer their comments on the contents thereof.
Taking note of the same, court ordered for the supply of the affidavits to all parties and adjourned the hearing till November 1, 2022.
In the earlier hearing, while coming down heavily upon the authorities, the bench had criticised them and had remarked that "we all know that thousands of crores of rupees have already been spent to clean river Ganga under Namami Gange Project but with hardly any result".
The lead petition is pending since the year 2006 and still, sewerage water is being discharged into various rivers including the river Ganga.
Case Title: Re - Ganga Pollution v. State of U.P. and others
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