Rs 5,000 fine for throwing waste in Yamuna

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has announced a fine of Rs 5,000 on individuals spotted throwing waste and 'religious items' in river Yamuna.

Yamuna, flowing through Mathura, Vrindavan and Agra, has been reduced to a sewer canal these days, choked with piles of accumulated garbage and industrial effluents.

In December 2013, the Supreme Court had sought expert help from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) after being told by CPCB that despite Rs 5,000 crore spent for reducing pollution, the river was staring at a catastrophe as over 2,400 million litres of untreated sewage flows into it every day.

Since 1994, when the apex court took up monitoring of steps to reduce pollution in Yamuna, Uttar Pradesh has spent Rs 2,052 crore, Delhi government and its civic bodies Rs 2,387 crore and Haryana Rs 549 crore to clean the river, taking the total to Rs 4,988 crore.

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