From correspondents in Uttar Pradesh, India, 07:31 PM IST

Agra, city of Taj Mahal - one of the seven wonders of the world, has launched a campaign against polluters, ahead of the World Environment Day June 5.

Agra Divisional Commissioner S.K. Sharma launched the campaign in the Taj Trapezium Zone - an area of 10,400 sq km around Taj Mahal, the monument to love.

At a meeting of the monitoring committee, Sharma ordered a thorough investigation of the working of all effluent treatment plants of multi-storeyed buildings which were accused of directly pumping sewer and waste water into the earth through bore holes.

'The Agra Development Authority has been recklessly clearing layout plans and site construction maps of colonies and complexes without bothering to investigate whether sewer line connections were available or proper waste water treatment facilities existed,' said a monitoring committee member D.K. Joshi.

The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board officials at the meeting Saturday said the petha (sweet meat) units in the city were asked to shift to a new site in Kalindi Vihar across the Yamuna river. In recent years, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and other environmental agencies have identified more than 400 petha units in Agra which were polluting water bodies and creating air pollution by dumping petha waste just about anywhere.

Action was also being taken against electro-plating units for not installing air-pollution scrubber systems.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)