Summary:
Nainital: The Uttarakhand high court on Tuesday ordered sealing of sewerage pipes that dump untreated sewage into a nala, which further drains the waste into Ganga in Haridwar, within 72 hours. The court also directed that those responsible for permitting flow of untreated sewage into the river should be challaned.“No untreated sewerage will be permitted to be emptied directly into Ganga,” said the division bench of acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari.The court asked for more CCTV cameras to be installed at ghats to check littering and steps to curb overflow of excessive drain water in Ganga. The court appointed the district magistrate, Haridwar, as the nodal officer to coordinate and maintain cleanliness on the ghats and surrounding areas in consultation with Haridwar nagar nigam.Last week, the HC had directed Haridwar nagar nigam to clean the ghats every three hours, if necessary, by increasing the strength of safai karamcharis, and to videograph the entire cleanliness of the ghats every three hours for perusal of the court.The court had also appointed two practising advocates of the high court as advocate commissioners to visit all the ghats in Haridwar in order to ascertain the exact status of cleanliness and hygiene being maintained in these places and to submit their report in a sealed cover in the court on the next date of hearing.Chetan Joshi and Nikhil Singhal, advocate commissioners appointed by the court, visited various spots and ghats in Haridwar on the banks of Ganga and submitted in the court that drains were dumping untreated waste into the river while many ghats were littered with polythene..