Strict Punishment in Store for Those Hurting Ganga

According to the new bill, the ones who commit a range of offenses on the river Ganga, may face prison time or very high fines.

A Centre-appointed panel has drafted a bill, the National River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Bill 2017, which if passed into a law will also prescribe seven years in jail and a fine of up to Rs. 100 crore for anyone who commits a range of offences on the river, including blocking its flow, quarrying its banks or constructing jetties without permission.

The Uttarakhand High Court recently declared the river a "living entity," and the panel's bill makes it emphatically clear that troubling it can be a costly affair, if converted into the country's first ever act on a river.

Among others, the panel led by retired Justice Giridhar Malaviya, has also suggested declaring an area abutting within 1 kilometre from Ganga and its major tributaries as a "water saving zone".

The panel though has suggested that such zones may be defined after conducting scientific studies within six months after the bill is enacted.

The government has forwarded the draft, submitted to the Water Resources Ministry in April, to another experts' committee to seek their suggestions on the bill, which will be further discussed with the basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar before the final draft is out.

"Since the issue relates to the basin states of Ganga and its tributaries, the Centre wants to discuss the draft with the state governments first. Such a meeting shall be convened in the near future," sources in the ministry said.

Advocate Arun Kumar Gupta, one of the four members of the experts' committee currently studying the draft bill, pitched for making stringent provisions to ensure people did not violate the law which aims to make the river pollution-free.

"Crores of rupees were spent on cleaning the river in the past, but all went down the drain. Hence, responsibility should be fixed now or else the currents efforts too will not bear fruit," Gupta, an amicus curiae of the Allahabad High Court, told PTI over the phone from the Uttar Pradesh city.

Some of the major punishments for various offences recommended by the panel are:

Stone quarrying, crushing, cutting, finishing or processing sand mining illegally in bed/on banks of Ganga/its tributaries: Simple imprisonment up to five years or with fine which may extend up to Rs 50,000 or both.

In case the contravention continues, an additional fine extending up to Rs 20,000 per day. Offender concerned shall be punishable with imprisonment for the term which may extend up to seven years in case the failure continues for a year after a conviction.

Causing discontinuity in flow of water in Ganga/ tributaries without permission from competent authority: Offender shall be liable to imprisonment up to two years and monetary fine which may extend to Rs 100 crore.

Constructing jetties/port/permanent hydraulic structure for storage/diversion/control/channelisation of water into/from Ganga/tributaries sans permission: one year imprisonment and monetary fine which may extend up to Rs 50 crore.

Contaminating water of Ganga/tributary by disposal of pesticide, non-degradable plastic, waste batteries, hazardous chemicals: imprisonment for a term extending up to one year or with fine which may extend up to Rs 50,000 or with both and in case contravention continues, with additional fine which may extend up to Rs 5000.

Withdrawing water by electric/diesel-operated tubewells from the land fronting Ganga/tributaries: simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to Rs 2000, or with both.

Additional fine which may extend up to Rs 2000 per day in case of contravention. The imprisonment may be extended to five years in case the failure continues beyond a period of a year after conviction.

Read more: The Times of India

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4 Comments

1. The issue of water in the world is intimately tied to the issue of wastewater treatment his main source of pollution

   More it will fuel water habitat and more pollution discharged into the environment there.

   So far there is no wastewater treatment system, it simply management of feces that allows them to transit place of defecation until the place of their dispersal in the environment

   A similar configuration to open defecation in the open air of 1000 years back 

   Biological Treatment Purification of wastewaters 

   Today concerning the treatment of waste water it is that simple management of feces that allows to pass feces instead of defecation until the place of their dispersion into the environment.

   The use of treatment has no vocation to purify: it rejects all the pollution of wastewater into the environment without any purification devices.

   The - biological treatment - a comprehensive, definitive, economic, ecological and biological solution with immediate recycling of liquid out of the process for the watering of plant biodiversity: vegetable, pleasure garden, or an agricultural exploitation. A reduction in the levy of water on the groundwater conservation of a scarce resource: water.

   "Let's protect today what we have been given yesterday to better restore it tomorrow. »

2. the governments in the past have been giving indirect subsidies to the industries on the banks of the river Ganga. Nevertheless it is not too late to contain the troubles relating to the river. The penal actions may or may not help. We have developed our business without ethics. After destroying the lifeline for centuries the industries may come up with corporate social responsibility. Who is going to monitor and what is our agenda.

3. The main culprits of polluting Ganga and other rivers are the Govt. of India and state governments of states through which Ganga flows or are in catchment area of Ganga. The Industries and local Self government and urban Development ministries in Governments of India are responsible for this bad state of rivers and even for disappearance of rivers. Govt's are constructing dams like Tehri with less dependability less than 75 percent to disallow river flow downstream. governments are liers and shed crocodial tears, as nothing to happen better for betterment of rivers of india even for ganga in practical.

4. Draft Bill should be posted on this site so that improvements if any could be suggested. State Govt.s and its organs must also be brought under the ambit of this law and even non-discharge of duty of enforcement of laws and regulations that cause continuation of harm to Ganges and its river system should be culpable negligence, punishable for allowing status quo or not doing what the law requires the enforcing agencies to do. Same time, there has to be adequate flexibility for permitting innovative projects aiming for conservation of soil and water .

   One more issue that can be enforced is the permission of ONLY ORGANIC CULTIVATION in the areas with in an effective distance of say 5 - 10 km from the river banks so that pesticides and chemical contaminants do not enter the river system thru u/g aquifers.