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Haridwar district magistrate will be held responsible for sale of plastic on Ganga ghats: HC
The administration recently floated a tender of ₹13 crore for manning all public ghats to ensure plastic ban and check violations.
District magistrate (DM) Haridwar will face action if plastic is sold on the Ganga ghats, the Uttarakhand high court has said. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on Wednesday when it also said the ghats should be cleaned every three hours and video of the same should be submitted.
A division bench of chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari issued the directions following a PIL by Narendra from Uttar Pradesh.
The court said, “The district magistrate of Haridwar is also directed to ensure that no plastic is sold on the ghats henceforth. In case of breach of this direction, appropriate action will be taken against him.”
There are 78 ghats in Haridwar district of which about 50 are public ghats. The administration recently floated a tender of ₹13 crore for manning all public ghats to ensure plastic ban and check violations.
DM Haridwar has also been made responsible to ensure that no drain discharge flows into the river.
On August 31, the HC directed DM Haridwar to comply with statutory duties under the Solid Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 after witnessing photographs in which plastic was littered. “The ghats project very sorry state of affairs. It looks like a garbage dump,” said the direction.
The court also appointed advocates Chetan Joshi and Nikhil Singhal as advocate commissioners to visit the ghats and submit the actual status of cleanliness.
The court further said that the superintendent engineer of irrigation department should ensure removal of temporary encroachments in the parking area. “It is also directed to clean the ghats every three hours, if necessary, by boosting the strength of Safai Karmcharis (sanitary workers). It is directed to film the act every three hours for perusal of this court,” added the direction.
Deepak Rawat, DM Haridwar, said, “We have floated a tender for manning the ghats. Waste from five drains is being discharged into river Ganga. We are trying to fix it and the works will be completed by August 2019. We have already removed encroachments and have put staff in place to maintain hygiene.”
