HYDERABAD: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has termed the measures taken till now by the Telangana government to control pollution of the Musi river as “unsatisfactory”.
The NGT also flagged the high cost of phytoremediation works proposed by the State government on the banks of Musi at Rs 528.30 crore, which amounts to Rs 45 lakh per MLD. The tribunal pointed out that according to the National Mission for Clean Ganga, the rate is “20 times” higher than normal.
The NGT has set up a monitoring committee on the lines constituted earlier for Yamuna, Ghaggar and Sutlej rivers. This committee will exclusively monitor measures taken by the State government to control pollution of the Musi.
The new committee has been formed despite the State already having a River Rejuvenation Committee (RRC) with the Chief Secretary as its chairman, as per the NGT directions issued earlier, for monitoring eight polluted river stretches in the State.
The NGT said that the monitoring committee will function in tandem with the RRC. It will have former Judge of AP and Telangana High Court Justice Vilas Afzalpurkar as its chairman and the District Magistrate as well as a representative each from the Central Pollution Control Board and the Telangana State Pollution Control Board as its members.
The committee has been given the liberty to co-opt any other experts or institutions and also explore the possibility of sourcing CSR funds for remediation and restoration works of the polluted river.
The NGT, which was hearing a petition filed by two law students from Hyderabad — Mohammed Nayeem Pasha and Syed Aftab Ghori — directed that the first meeting of the Monitoring Committee must be held within one month from the date of issue of the order, which is September 21.
The Tribunal also asked the Monitoring Committee to complete its work tentatively within one year as the NGT had issued an order earlier setting a deadline of March, 2021 for the State government to complete its action plan of constructing Sewage Treatment Plants to ensure no untreated sewage from Hyderabad enters Musi.
The panel will also look into taking up development of biodiversity parks and artificial wetlands by the State.