The eastern bench of the National Green Tribunal has formed a committee to investigate the allegations that several parts of the river Saraswati within greater Kolkata have been encroached upon.
The bench comprising Justice B. Amit Sthalekar and expert member Saibal Dasgupta, in response to a petition filed by environment activist Subhas Datta, formed the committee last Thursday.
The committee, which has to file a report in a month, includes representatives of the central and state pollution control boards and officials from the state environment and irrigation departments.
State pollution control board has been asked to act as a nodal agency.
Petitioner Datta has been directed to accompany the committee on its field visits.
The committee will try to find out whether fly ash and soil have been dumped in the river to stop its flow, whether illegal bridges have been constructed over it, whether untreated wastewater is being discharged into the river, and whether the river has been encroached upon.
“I pointed out during the hearing that though the Saraswati is polluting the Ganges at Tribeni in Hooghly and Sankrail in Howrah, it has not been included under the Centre’s National Mission for Clean Ganga programme,” said Datta.
