Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar said on Friday his Ministry has asked for city-level plans for the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as these problems need to be dealt with at the local level. He was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha.
“Every city has different pollutants and the sources also vary,” Mr. Javadekar said. Replying to another question, he said water bodies in the country are polluted because 70% of sewage goes untreated.
Sewage in Ganga
“People used to say ‘Ganga maile ho gayi papiyon ke paap dhote dhote (the Ganga has become dirty washing off the sins of sinners)’. But this not true,” the Minister said, stating that it was untreated sewage and not the misdeeds of pilgrims that the was a major source of pollution.
He added that in the past the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) was built and operated by different entities which created problems. “Now, we have decided that those who build and operate the sewage treatment plants are the same. They will operate the plant for 10 years,” he said.
Answering questions on polluting industries, he said that 342 out of 700 industries inspected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have been found violating environmental norms and causing pollution in the last four years. The CPCB, he said, had carried out inspections for verification of compliance to environmental norms between April 2016 and March 2020.
