NGT gave directions to clean Yamuna under Maily se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalization Plan 2017

National Green Tribunal (NGT) on 13 January 2015 gave directions to clean River Yamuna under Maily se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalization Plan 2017.

The directions were given by the principal bench of NGT presided over by Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar. The tribunal's judgment came on a petition by Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan against pollution in the Yamuna and covering of drains in Delhi.

Directions given by bench are

•    Impose a fine of 5000 rupees on individuals for throwing waste or religious items into the river
•    Banned the dumping of construction material into the Yamuna while imposing a fine of 50000 rupees on the violators
•    Restrained real estate developers from carrying out any construction work on the floodplains
•    It also directed states where Yamuna and its tributaries flow to come up with an action plan to ensure environmental flow to revive the Yamuna stretch in Delhi.
•    The bench directed that 4000 crore rupees, as estimated by the expert committee be made available from the 20000 crore rupees Budget of Delhi Government.

Constitution of a committee to implement the directions

The bench decided to constitute a principal committee which will be responsible for implementation of the judgment.

The committee will consist of the Special Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), joint secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, chief secretary of Delhi, vice-chairman DDA, commissioners of all corporations and the state secretaries of Haryana, UP, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Members of the expert committees earlier constituted by NGT — including professor emeritus of DU C R Babu, former professor of JNU Brij Gopal and IIT Delhi professor A K Gosain — were also made members of the principal committee.

The Union government has been implementing Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) for cleaning of Yamuna River with assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency, without much success.