Observing that pollution along river Ganga in Varanasi has not reduced, the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government were rapped by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday. During the hearing of a petition filed by Anil Kumar Singhal, the principal bench headed by justice Swatanter Kumar was handed over photographs of decomposed bodies and animal carcasses floating in Ganga River. After going through the photographs, the bench said,

"It is really unfortunate that such things are going on. Why don't you do something about this? Your slogans are very contrary to your actions."

The petitioner's lawyer Gaurav Kumar Bansal stressed that authorities were not taking any strict action to stop people from dumping bodies in the Ganga after final rites of cremation and animal carcasses too are dumped openly. "We have sought intervention from the Tribunal as the dumping results in pollution and can also diseases," said Bansal while speaking to dna.

Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, is thronged by devotees from across the world and nearly 100 cremations happen on the ghats of Varanasi on the banks of Ganga. A majority of these cremations are carried out at Manikarnika and Harishchandra Ghat.

The NGT has been regularly hearing matters on pollution in the holy river and on more than one occasion, it has asked the Centre to substantiate their claims of cleaning the river. While earlier in October, it had asked to "name one place where the condition of the river has improved despite spending crores", on Monday it directed the Centre and UP government to explain who is responsible for increasing pollution in River Ganga.

Cleaning the holy Ganga was one of Prime Minister Modi's foremost promises during the 2014 general elections. Under the National Democratic Alliance government, the responsibility to clean Ganga has been handed over to the water resources ministry under Uma Bharti and the ambitious Namami Gange program was launched to push the river's cleaning.

The petitioner has approached the NGT on the issue of pollution in Ganga river's tributaries' in Uttarakhand. "The quality of the river needs to improve in the upper reaches before it flows down to other states and hence we are talking of pollution in the tributaries of Ganga," Bansal added.