Supreme Court constitutes panel under Home Secretary to draw up action plan to clean Yamuna
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500+ questions on Environment with explanations
📌 Summary:
- Supreme Court (Bench: Justices Manoj Misra + Manmohan) constituted a committee headed by the Union Home Secretary, with Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs through which the Yamuna flows
- Committee given 8 weeks to draft a comprehensive Yamuna Action Plan
- Yamuna serves as lifeline for over 57 million people in the National Capital Region
- Court expressed "profound grief" that the river has been reduced to "little more than a sewage canal"
- Court cited absence of a single integrated action plan akin to "Namami Gange"
- Required components of the plan: clear objectives, implementation strategy, agency-wise roles/responsibilities, budgetary allocations, timelines, and a single coordinating authority
- Court's amicus curiae (Sr Adv K. Parameshwar) recommended: list of polluting cities/industries; geo-tagging of STPs and drains; public water quality data
- Court traced causes of pollution: rampant riverbed encroachment; illegal industries discharging effluents; untreated sewage from unauthorised colonies; sewage mixing into stormwater drains
- Court said multiple agencies "work in silos" and "at cross purposes" — failing to maintain even basic drainage gradients
- Mandated "hard decisions": removal of encroachments, closure of illegal industries, relocation of unauthorised colonies, in concert with Union, States, UTs
- Next hearing: August 8, 2026
🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 — Environment (Conservation, Pollution, EIA); GS2 (cooperative federalism, multi-agency coordination); river rejuvenation models; lessons from Namami Gange; environmental governance failures
📝 Prelims Facts:
- Bench: Justices Manoj Misra and Manmohan
- Panel head: Union Home Secretary; members: Chief Secretaries of all Yamuna-basin States/UTs
- Yamuna serves: >57 million people in NCR
- Comparator river-rejuvenation programme: Namami Gange
- Amicus curiae: Senior Advocate K. Parameshwar
- Next hearing: August 8, 2026
🔑 Key Term: Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) — facility that treats wastewater (primary, secondary, tertiary stages) before discharge into a river; geo-tagging of STPs and drains is central to monitoring river pollution and accountability under the Yamuna Action Plan.
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