1. A chamber meeting was held today in the NGT between 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm to review the progress of steps for prevention and control of pollution of river Yamuna in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The meeting has been attended by the following:
1. River Yamuna Monitoring Committee
i. Ms. Shailaja Chandra, IAS
ii. Mr. B.S Sajwan, former Expert Member, NGT
2. River Yamuna Monitoring Committee (Haryana)
i. Dr. P.K MK Das, Member RYMC, Haryana
ii. Mr. Y.K Garg, Member RYMC, Haryana
3. Mr. Nikhil Kumar, CEO, Delhi Jal Board
4. Mr. R.S. Negi, Member, DJB
5. Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Chief Eng., YWS (South)
6. Mr. V.S. Kundu, Addl. Chief Secy. cum CEO, GMDA, Gurugram
7. Mr. Vinay Pratap Singh, Municipal Commissioner Gurugram
8. Mr. Devender Singh, ACS Irrigation, Haryana
9. Justice Pritam Pal, Monitoring Committee (Ghaggar)
10. River Yamuna Monitoring Committee ii. Ms. Shailaja Chandra, IAS
11. Dr. Babu Ram (Technical Consultant) Ghaggar Monitoring Committee
12. Mr. K.K. Verma, Chief Eng., PHED, Haryana
13. Mr. Utsav Sharma, Regional Officer, UPPCB
14. Mr. Vishal Gandhi, Scientist-D, CPCB
15. Mr. Ashok Kumar, Addl. Secy., NMCG
2. The Monitoring Committee gave presentation on the status of progress in the matter.
3. After interaction, one of the questions which emerged from discussion is whether drain carrying waste water should merge with river carrying clean water in violation of orders of this Tribunal dated 11.09.2019 in the present matter, prohibiting discharge of waste water into the river, the same being criminal offence under the provisions of the Water Act and further direction that bioremediation and/or phytoremediation or any other remediation must be done pending permanent solution. Rejuvenation methods such as Rootzone treatment, development of wetlands etc using available space — horizontally or vertically, closest to the source of generation of waste must be adopted as to reduce the pollution load. Further question is overall ownership of one authority in Delhi for better coordination and execution. An order of this Tribunal may be required on these and other incidental issues.
4. Since practically all the stakeholders have attended the meeting, we have requested them to give their suggestions, if any, in writing within one week. Order will be uploaded on the NGT website after considering the said suggestions/submissions by 24.01.2020.