Overview
- The tribunal’s January 8 order notes environmental compensation was levied for violations yet remains unpaid and must be recovered expeditiously.
- Government authorities were directed to ensure no similar tent facilities are permitted on the banks of the Ganga or its tributaries in the future.
- A seven-member committee found the projects operated without State Pollution Control Board consent in breach of the Water and Air Acts.
- Inspectors reported permanent brick structures on the riverbed and mismatches between land allotted and land used by the two operators.
- The tent city projects were set up in early 2023 under a Varanasi Development Authority partnership and were inaugurated on January 13, 2023, while a related turtle sanctuary de‑notification dispute remains before the Supreme Court.