Court warns of disciplinary action against city engineer

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Friday said the status of pollution in the Sabarmati has not changed a bit since it took suo motu cognizance of the matter three years ago. The judges warned the city engineer and the board of wastewater management of strict disciplinary action for dereliction of duty, saying nothing has changed and only papers have been created following HC’s rebuke.

Dissatisfied with the efforts to curb river pollution, the bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Vaibhavi Nanavati ordered the Ahmedabad municipal commissioner to file an affidavit every month to show the progress made to achieve the target set in the blueprint for treatment of wastewater. When the AMC requested the court to spare the civic chief from filing an affidavit and allow the city engineer to do so instead, the judges said, “Once you show us real work, we will grant you liberty. We still do not have confidence in you.”

The judges also directed the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) to file an affidavit on the 10th day of every month regarding the AMC’s work to stop industrial discharge into the sewers, which the civic body said was the root cause of underperformance of its sewage treatment plants (STP).

The HC has once again ordered closure of the industrial units that are found illegally discharging effluent into the AMC’s drainage system.

The judges suggested creating a special force to take care of this problem. They also slammed the AMC for shifting the responsibility onto the GPCB. The bench also directed the joint task force (JTF), which was formed in 2021, to find the cause of pollution, suggest solutions to the problem, carry out inspection every three months and submit the pollution status report to the court.

After the AMC’s rant that industrial discharge into the gutters damages the STPs, which are functioning only at their 85% capacity at present, the CJ said, “We are in the same position. Only paperwork is done because of nagging. Don’t test our patience. We will take disciplinary action against everyone. Don’t pull us to that position. Otherwise, we will initiate action against the city engineer. This is the warning we are giving you today. Don’t take us for granted. Don’t force us to take that extreme action. (sic)”

When amicus curiae Hermang Shah pointed out that untreated wastewater is being discharged from “compliant” STP, the judges said, “Nothing has moved as of now. We are at the same stage from where we had started.”