The Supreme Court has directed both the State of Bihar as well as the Union of India to file an appropriate report on the status of illegal and unauthorised construction as well as pollution due to plastic waste in the river Ganga.
The order came from the bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan while hearing a case filed by one Ashok Kumar Sinha alleging rampant encroachment on the floodplains of river, which threaten aquatic life, including rare Dolphins, in Patna on April 2.
The next date of hearing is after four weeks, when the court has sought detailed report on the current status, the progress made so far at the ground level and how the floodplains have been described in the revenue records and if there is any construction within the zone of floodplains of the Ganga. The order also gave liberty to appellant Ashok Kumar Sinha to apprise the court about the current position.
“We would like to know what steps have been taken by the authorities to remove all such encroachments over the banks of river Ganga and how many such encroachments are still there as on date and in what manner authorities propose to remove all such encroachments and within what period of time,” the bench said.
On December 1, 2023, in course of the hearing, the counsel for the state had informed the court that after survey, 213 unauthorised constructions adjacent to the river Ganga had been identified in and around Patna and steps have been taken to remove them. Later, the counsel informed that in some cases the settlers had got stay from the High Court, but the apex court sought particulars of the cases.
The measurement work and identification of encroached areas was done by the team (constituted under the orders of the District Magistrate) based on a comparative examination of the Survey Map (1908-09) and the Municipal Survey Map (1932-33).
The court has earlier observed that “the state shall ensure no further illegal construction or unauthorised encroachment takes place adjacent to the river Ganga, particularly in and around the city of Patna.”
The appellant had appealed before the apex court after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) disposed of his application challenging illegal constructions of colonies, setting up of brick kilns and other structures, including, a 1.5 km road by the Bihar government itself, on the fragile floodplains in Patna. The appeal alleged complete violation of the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection & Management) Authorities Order, 2016, under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
With regard to the concerns on dumping of plastic waste, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), New Delhi, also filed an affidavit in the case on the directive of the court and said that during deliberations “it came to light that there is wide spread use of plastic in the areas which are to be kept free from such pollution potential products”.
The Ministry, it said, had notified the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2021, thereby prohibiting the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution and sale and use of identified single use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, with effect from July 1, 2022.
It also referred to the constotution of a National Task Force to review measures on implementation of ban on identified single use plastic items and effective plastic waste management in the country. “All States and UTs have constituted a Special Task Force under Chief Secretary,” it added.
Ganga river once flowed through the city and due to its huge expanse, steamers were used to take people across. However, it has drifted several kilometres away due to a number of factors, including geogenic as well as man made like brick kilns, mining, silting, pollution, etc.
