The Economic Times

Title : WHY NO URGENCY: SC - SC Pulls Up Govt for Going Slow on Cleaning Ganga
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NEW DELHI
Article Date : 08/14/2014

The Supreme Court on Wednesday criticized the government for not moving rapidly to clean up the
Ganga, despite promises in the BJP's manifesto, and instead focusing on low-priority areas, in what is
being seen as a veiled allusion to the judicial appointments bill which is currently before Parliament.
Where is the urgency in dealing with this matter? The people are waiting. Your election manifesto said
that it (cleaning up of the Ganga) would be done on a war footing.
Where is the urgency? No one is showing any urgency, a threejudge bench, led by Justice TS Thakur,
said.
Justice Thakur did not stop s there. In what is being widely seen as a reference to the National Judicial
Appointments Commission Bill, 2014, which was passed by the s Lok Sabha on Wednesday, he said: t
Some issues that ought to be on t the back burner are being put out on the front burner. c He was
addressing his comments to Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar c during a hearing on a PIL filed by green
activist MC Mehta way back in 1985. The observations created t quite a stir in the normally placid
courtroom. Kumar said that the l government was ready with plans to address the problem, but did not
reveal the specifics.
Justice Thakur is in line to be the CJI at a future point of time if the strict line of succession in terms of
seniority is followed.
The Bill, which will now be introduced in the Upper House, aims to scraps the present collegium system
of appointment under which the judiciary has the final say on appointment of judges. If the bill becomes
law the collegium system will be replaced by a National Judicial Commission, which will consist of the
three senior most Supreme Court judges, the law minister and two eminent personalities.
The Rajya Sabha is considered likely is pass the legislation on Thursday after the government agreed to
changes suggested by the Congress, the largest opposition party. The ruling NDA is in a mi nority in the
Rajya Sabha.
Justice Thakur's comments may not go down well with the Modi government which had set up a new
department under Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti to clean up the river shortly after assuming
office. Cleaning the heavily polluted river is widely as a priority area for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government has since set up an inter-ministerial group, including the ministries of power,
environment, surface transport and tourism e to deal with various aspects of the problem. It has also
earmarked Rs 2037 crore for cleaning up the Ganga and another 100 crore for developing the ghats from
Allahabad to Haldia.
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