The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday questioned the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board for submitting a report on the quality of river water at the Maha Kumbh site in Prayagraj based on outdated samples, reported India Today.

The tribunal said the samples had been obtained on January 12, a day before the pilgrimage began. “Why have you filed such a huge document then?” it asked the state pollution control board. “To waste our time?”

The state additional advocate general, representing the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, told the tribunal that it had tested recent samples and would place them on record. The pollution control board said that corrective measures were being taken to address water pollution.

“For each deviation, monitoring and corrective action is going on,” the state government said, according to India Today.

The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board on Wednesday claimed that the water at the Maha Kumbh was fit for bathing. This contradicted a report of the Central Pollution Control Board from February 3, which said that the river water quality of the Ganga and Yamuna was not fit for bathing on account of high levels of bacteria commonly found in human and animal excreta.

The state pollution control board claimed that the dissolved oxygen level in the river water was 8.9 milligrams per litre and biochemical oxygen demand was 3 milligrams per litre, the Hindustan Times reported. It said that the level of faecal coliform was reported to be 2,400 mpn/100 ml (most probable number of organisms per 100 millilitres).

River water is said to be suitable for bathing if the biochemical oxygen demand is less than 3 milligrams per litre and faecal coliform is below 2,500 mpn/100 ml.

Faecal coliform bacteria are microbes that typically live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals, including humans, and are found in their excreta.

On Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath told the state Assembly that the water at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati is fit not just for bathing, but also for “achaman”, or the ceremonial practice of sipping holy water. He claimed that reports of water contamination were part of a conspiracy to defame the Maha Kumbh.

In response, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that it was only because of the Central Pollution Control Board that it came to light that the water at the Kumbh was contaminated. He remarked that when the state government claimed that everything was under control, what it meant was that the media’s reporting on the issue was under control.

“The public is asking whether, like ‘contempt of court’, a case can be filed against someone for ‘contempt of a government board or authority’,” he asked.

The Maha Kumbh began on January 13 and will go on till February 26. The Uttar Pradesh government claims that on an average, more than a crore people have taken the holy dip in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers every day during the pilgrimage, according to the Hindustan Times.