Asking for follow-up in the next hearing, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court on Friday instructed the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to carry forward the actions needed on the notices issued to seven Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP) on December 4.
The division bench was hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) related to the pollution in the Sabarmati river due to the dumping of untreated sewage and trade effluents. GPCB had reportedly issued a show-cause notice to seven CETPs asking for a concrete explanation to avoid any actions over not following the parameters decided for the treated effluent.
The court in its order said that “The GPCB has requested this institute to depute a team of experts at the earliest so as to inspect all the 7 CETPs at the earliest. We direct GPCB to immediately make the payment as asked for by the institute and request to depute its team at the earliest. Once the report of the institute with respect to all the 7 CETPs come on record, the picture will be clearer.”
Apart from this, while hearing the appeals from the CETPs and other industries facing the disconnection of their effluents by AMC – who were seeking relief citing their connection to be legal the division bench said, “It is this GPCB that kept on giving you (CETPs) a clean chit. They didn’t take appropriate steps at an appropriate time..When reports were being fabricated in the laboratories of AMC, they (GPCB) certified it.”
The PIL is to be heard after two weeks wherein the industries are asked to satisfy AMC with a solution on how the effluent discharge by them can be managed in a better way.
