- The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted a Central Monitoring Committee. NGT has entrusted the committee with the task of undertaking and executing a national plan to make river stretches across India pollution-free.
- The Committee will be composed of senior representatives of NITI Aayog, Secretaries of the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Chairman of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga
- The formation of the committee comes in the backdrop of proceedings which began after taking suo motu cognisance of a 2018 newspaper report titled “More river stretches are now critically polluted: CPCB”. The report had highlighted that the issue of increased polluted river stretches and pegged the number at 351.
- Earlier, the NGT had ordered the CPCB, respective State pollution control boards and pollution control committees, to launch a nationwide programme on biodiversity monitoring and indexing of the rivers to assess the effectiveness of river cleaning programmes.
- It had also directed the Union Environment Ministry to formulate a policy for giving environmental awards to institutions and States that comply with orders and ensure reduction in pollution.
- The National Green Tribunal was established in 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010. The responsibility of the tribunal is to work on the disposal of cases related to environmental protection, conservation of forests and other natural resources.
