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On January 20, 2025, Justice B Amit Sthalekar of the National Green Tribunal's eastern bench instructed the chief secretary of West Bengal to submit an affidavit by May 15, 2025, addressing the issue of removing encroachment along River Saraswati.
The application filed by Subhas Datta alleged failure of the authorities to prevent pollution and encroachment of the river passing through Hooghly and Howrah districts of West Bengal and joining River Ganga.
It was alleged that the water quality of the river had deteriorated on account of continuous uncontrolled pollution through discharge of untreated sewage over a stretch of 50 kilometres and there were encroachments of river banks, blocking the flow of the river.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board has revealed that there are 19 vacant positions, including four technical, 11 scientific and four administrative roles. Additionally, all pollution control board laboratories in the states are well-equipped with the necessary infrastructure and are fully operational.
The state board has a central laboratory with National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and Environment Protection Act accreditation at Ernakulam. Regional laboratory is functioning at Kozhikode and all other districts are equipped with district laboratories.
According to the report submitted to the NGT on January 1, 2025, the laboratory is also linked to the environmental surveillance center in Eloor, Ernakulam, for ongoing monitoring of local industries.
The application was registered suo motu on the basis of the news item titled Pollution control boards are the weak link, which appeared in the newpaper Deccan Herald on October 24, 2023.
The Central Pollution Control Board September 23, 2024 had directed all the state pollution control boards / committees to submit a progress report in indicating vacancies, laboratory infrastructure and the number of laboratories on or before January 1, 2025.
In the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee (PPCC), three posts are lying vacant. The committee assured NGT that the vacancies will be filled up within four months, in a report filed before the court January 8, 2025.
To address the manpower shortage, PPCC has taken steps for recruiting six technical consultants and three scientific consultants through outsourcing. Further, since PPCC does not have any administrative official it has proposed to hire four retired government officials as consultants for handling administrative and accounts matters.
PPCC is also reviewing the manpower and strengthening based on the requirement to address various functions entrusted to it. The committee laboratory is NABL-accredited.
The government of Puducherry has approved for the construction of an integrated office building and laboratory for the Department of Science, Technology and Environment and Puducherry Pollution Control Committee. Necessary action will be taken to establish an environmental laboratory in accordance with rules.
PPCC proposed to strengthen the air and water laboratory for monitoring various notified parameters after the construction of the integrated office building cum laboratory.