NGT notice to UP govt, CPCB over illegal units in Mathura

New Delhi, Sep 6 (PTI) A plea alleging that the apexpollution monitoring body was sleeping like "Kumbhakarna" overillegal industries operating at Mathura in Uttar Pradash hasprompted the National Green Tribunal to seek response from thestate government on the issue. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumarissued notices to the Akhilesh Yadav government, CentralPollution Control Board (CPCB), state pollution control boardand others while seeking their response by October. The NGT was hearing a plea filed by Mathura residentKanta Nath Chaturvedi seeking directions to permanently closeall illegal units which were running in violation ofenvironmental laws. In his plea, Chaturvedi has contended that theseunauthorised industries did not have valid consent to operateand discharge untreated effluents in the river Yamuna. "By allowing the illegal and hazardous units to operate,the respondents are not only exposing the unaware residents ofMathura to greater health hazards but also violating the normsof Taj Trapezium Zone. "They are equally liable under the environmentalprotection Act and Water Act along with the operators of suchillegal industries, and CPCB on the other hand is completelyignorant to the facts of this matter sleeping likemythological character ‘Kumbhakarna’," the plea said. Kumbhakarna, the younger brother of Ravana in themythological epic Ramayan, was known to sleep for six monthsat a stretch. PTI PKSARC