New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear the issue of discharge of untreated sewage into the Ganga posing a cancer threat to people living on its banks.

Two applications filed in the apex court pointed to threat of deadly diseases afflicting due to domestic sewage pollution of the Ganga in 36 towns in four states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

The applications pointed out that the pollution posed thread of diseases like gall bladder cancer, mild intestinal disease and kidney complications.

The court, which is monitoring the ambitious Ganga Action Plan aimed at checking pollution in the river, was informed that the serious health hazards due to domestic sewage pollution had been confirmed by Industrial Toxicology Research Institute, Lucknow.

Advocate Krishan Mahajan, who is assisting the court in the matter, mentioned the applications filed by him before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and expressed the urgency of hearing the health threat to around 76 per cent of the people living on the banks.

He said that the latest report of the Lucknow institute had found that Ganga waters have become home to a virulent form of E-coli bacteria (producing the Shiga toxin) that can lead to ailments ranging from mild intestinal disease to severe kidney complications.

The amicus said there was no mandatory standard formulated by the Centre on E-coli form count in water though it (E-coli form) is a crucial parameter to judge the threat and avoid the serious ill-effects of presence of human defecation in water.