Can't use sewage water for crops: Bombay High Court to Railways

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The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Railways to ensure that sewage or untreated water is not used for irrigation and cultivation of vegetables on land along railway tracks across the country.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice NM Jamdar directed the general manager of the Indian Railways to ensure that the court's direction is implemented and licences of violators cancelled.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by a city NGO through lawyer JP Kharge. Kharge alleged that several people had been given licences by the Western and Central Railways to cultivate along the railway tracks of the Mumbai's suburban rail network. However, many of these people were using "sewage water" for irrigation and all the toxins from such water were being passed on to the vegetables grown there. Kharge told the court that chemical analysis of some vegetables grown along the tracks had found high levels of lead, arsenic, copper and other metals. These metals can have an adverse effect on human health, he said.

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