The Gujarat High Court has asked reports on the condition of effluent treatment plants (ETP) and sewage treatment plants (STP) after hearing the suo motu public interest litigation pertaining to tackling Sabarmati river pollution in Ahmedabad.
The division bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and VD Nanavati issued four key directives in its order dated January 7, which was made public on Thursday.
The court has ordered that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), in cooperation with the court-appointed Joint Task Force, inspect all ETPs of textile industries that have petitioned the Gujarat High Court for relief after their units were shut down due to non-compliance with pollution norms.
The court has ordered that a report on the condition of the ETPs be submitted to the court before the next hearing date.
The case will be heard again in court on January 21.
The court also directed GPCB to investigate Arvind Ltd’s proposal to use a zero liquid discharge technique of water treatment and further directed GPCB to make an appropriate decision as soon as possible and give a final nod in this regard in the form of consolidated consent and authorisation (CCA) or by any other legal mode.
Meanwhile, the bench directed AMC to continue its drive to detect and identify illegal industrial connections into sewers and to snap all such connections as soon as possible, as well as to disconnect the power supply.
The order to disconnect power was issued in response to a submission by an amicus curiae that units with illegal industrial connections were still running their units in the middle of the night and discharging industrial effluent in other illegal ways.
In its order, the court stated, “This should be stopped as soon as possible.”
In addition, the court ordered AMC to request that IIT Gandhinagar take on the project of inspecting all 14 STPs as soon as possible.