After Supreme Court held State environment department reponsible for not taking enough measures to reduce pollution in Ulhas and Waldhuni rivers, they have now blamed the concerned municipal corporation and planned an inspection of entire length of river next week.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Anil Diggikar, principal secretary (environment) on Monday, which was attended by officials from Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) as well as other authorities including municipal commissioners from Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, Dombivali Municipal Corporation and Ambarnath Municipal Council. "The municipal corporations will have to submit their status reports. A site visit has been scheduled for April 30 where the committee including members from MIDC, municipal corporations, NEERI, NGO Vanashakti, MPCB and other will carry out a detailed site inspection of the entire stretch of the two rivers and check the ground situation based on which a joint report will be prepared," said a senior official from MPCB. He added that based on this report an action plan will also be submitted to Supreme Court.
Stalin D, director of Vanashakti who filed the litigation in Supreme Court to fight against the rampant pollution caused in two rivers, which supplies drinking water in the Badlapur-Thane region demanding complete rejuvenation of the two said, "Only when the Maharashtra State government faces a whip from SC, it wakes up and calls for a joint visit. We have been fighting for five years now and the rivers have been in pathetic state since almost two decades but this will be the first detailed site visit to be carried out by officials."
Stalin added that Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation and Ambarnath Municipal Council had failed to implement their own assurances given to the Supreme Court of taking steps to prevent the discharge of untreated sewage into the river.
