Furnish details of tanneries in Kanpur: NGT to UPPCB

New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) The UP pollution board has beendirected by National Green Tribunal to submit details oftanneries on the banks of river Ganga at Kanpur and inform itwhether they have permission from the Central Ground WaterAuthority (CGWA) for extraction of ground water. A bench headed by Justice U D Salvi also directed UttarPradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to dispose the consentto operate applications of tanneries in the state within fourweeks "in accordance with law". "UPPCB shall place before us all the facts concerning thecommencement of the industrial activity by each applicant,episodes of operations without consent, requisitions made forcompliance and the compliance made, abstraction of groundwater and requisite permissions from CGWA," the bench alsocomprising Expert Member Ranjan Chatterjee said. The tribunal was hearing pleas filed by Kazi Leather(Huda Hide Agency), N R Tanners, Minaar Industries (HindustanTannery Pvt Ltd) and New Universal Tannery seeking expeditiousdisposal of their consent to operate applications. The tanneries, which were running without consent, wereshut down for polluting the river. Later, a joint inspectionwas conducted and proper compliance reported. The matter has now been listed for next hearing onSeptember 15. Earlier, the tribunal had allowed the closed downtanneries located on the banks of Ganga in Kanpur to operateon a trial basis during which their effluent levels was to bechecked by a team of experts. It had also asked all industrial units there to furnishdetails of steps taken by them to curb pollution level to thejoint inspection team, comprising experts from UPPCB, CentralPollution Control Board (CPCB) and IIT-Kanpur. The NGT, which had earlier termed the 700 tanneries inKanpur situated on the river bank as one of the "highestsources of pollution", had also warned them of coercive actionif they failed to comply with environmental laws. PTI PKSARC