-: [rti4empowerment] UP Pollution Control Board unaware about Gomti cleaning : RTI

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

[rti4empowerment] UP Pollution Control Board unaware about Gomti cleaning : RTI

UP Pollution Control Board unaware about Gomti cleaning : RTI

News18 | Gulam Jeelani | Wed Jan 28, 2015 | 10:35 IST

http://www.news18.com/news/uttar-pradesh/up-pollution-control-board-unaware-about-gomti-cleaning-rti-678143.html

#Lucknow #Uttar Pradesh The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) is unaware about any steps taken by the Centre or State to clean the river Gomti, an RTI query by a 13-year-old Lucknow girl has revealed.

Worse still, the pollution watchdog body doesn't even have any information about the laws to keep a tab on people polluting the river, the reply added.

In reply to a the queries regarding expenses (by Centre or State) on Gomti river cleaning, in a Right to Information (RTI) application by Aishwarya Parashar, 13, the UPPCB said that it had no knowledge about the money spent. Instead it asked the young activist to get the details from the state's department of urban development.

"Every one is talking about cleaning the river. But they don't event know how much they have done so far," said Aishwarya, who shot to fame a few years ago after her RTI plea forced authorities to remove garbage outside her school in the state capital. Surprisingly, the UPPCB officials also said that they did not have any information about any laws or directives to stop people from dumping garbage (mostly after prayers) in the river.

The apathy doesn't stop here. The board took one year and three months to come up with the reply to the RTI plea while the RTI Act mandates the reply should come within 30 days. The plea was filed by Aishwarya is October 2013.

Notably, the government had, of late, taken many initiatives for cleaning Gomti. State chief secretary, Alok Ranjan had directed diversion of all nullahs to sewage treatment plant and ban on discharge of effluents directly into the river.

Even Lucknow's district magistrate Raj Shekhar had cleaned the river himself regularly with teams of NGOs and had released some funds for the cleaning of the river.