New Delhi, Nov 23: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recently directed all the states and union territories to designate a nodal agency to protect the water bodies in their regions. The nodal agencies may hold their meetings under the guidance of chief secretaries of the state. The NGT has also directed that the meeting should be held on time.

 

The Nodal agency will adopt a mechanism to monitor and also address grievances. NGT also asked the central monitoring committee to monitor 351 polluted river structures periodically. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice AK Goel said, “We find that steps taken so far can hardly be held to be adequate." It also said that "It helps not only aesthetics but also water availability, aquatic life, micro-climate, recharge of ground water and maintaining e-flow of the rivers.”

 

It also added, “Under the Public Trust Doctrine, the State has to act as trustee of the water bodies to protect them for the public use and enjoyment for current and future generations.”

 

The tribunal had expanded the scope of the petition filed by Lt. Col (Retd) Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi from Haryana to the entire country. The petition was in regard of restoration of Gurgaon's Ghata lake and 214 other water bodies and natural channels in Gurgaon and Faridabad.

 

 

In spite of the Clean Ganga Mission of India, several stretches of the mighty Ganga too are still polluted. The Biological Oxygen Demand in the stretches of Ganga are in the range of 3.5 to 8.8 milligram per litre. And therefore, Ganges is still put under priority 4 river category. All such problems are being tackled all at one by the NGT with this step.