Around a month ago, the NGT had directed the LMC to remove garbage from the banks of Gomti River. (Express)AFTER THE monitory committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recommended to its central office in Delhi to slap a fine of Rs 2 crore on Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) for garbage dumping and littering around Gomti River in Lucknow, the LMC commissioner fixed responsibility of four officials for the condition and ordered to realise Rs 50 lakh each from the officers to pay the fine.
According to Municipal Commissioner, Indramani Tripathi, a notice was issued to the four officials asking why the whole amount should not be taken from them. The four officials are Chief Engineer (civil) S P Singh, Chief Engineer (electromechanical) Ram Nagina Tripathi, Zonal In-charge (3) Rajesh Gupta and Zonal In-charge (6) Ambi Bisht. Bisht is Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna’s mother.
Around a month ago, the NGT had directed the LMC to remove garbage from the banks of Gomti River and surrounding areas. On Monday, monitory committee of the NGT inspected the areas around Gomti river and found heaps of garbage. The committee sent a recommendation to the NGT to slap a fine of Rs 2 crore on the LMC.
“Notices have been sent to the four officers. The monitory committee has recommended the NGT Delhi for realising the fine. If the NGT will confirm that the Rs 2-crore fine has been slapped, we will collect that amount from these four officials. For now, we have given three days to these officials to clean the area and reply on why shouldn’t we slap a fine of Rs 50 lakh each on them,” said the Municipal Commissioner.
“It was earlier directed by the NGT that there should be no garbage within 100-metre area of the river banks and to ensure cleanliness in the area. It was directed that the drains in the area should be clean so that it doesn’t pollute the river. None of the directives were found to be implemented and the monitory committee took the decision,” he added.
Zonal In-charge Rajesh Gupta claimed that he hadn’t received the notice yet. He claimed that several departments and officials responsible but “only four were being targeted.”
“We are doing our work. We are continuously getting the roads in the area cleaned. What can we do when garbage is dumped by local residents? There is no proper mechanism of garbage disposal. There is no proper door-to-door collection of garbage. About the river, the responsibility should be set for the irrigation department,” Gupta alleged.
He also claimed that of total eight zones in Lucknow, the river goes through four zones but only two were “being made responsible.” He added that he would mention all these points in his reply to the notice once he gets it.
