BDA must check Bellandur lake froth in 45 days, KSPCB says

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has one and a half months to check the dirty froth in Bellandur and Varthur lakes, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Chairman Ramachandra said on Wednesday.

At a recent meeting with officials of the BDA and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the KSPCB directed the former to fence the lakes so that froth does not fly. They were also told to smoothen water flow in the lakes to check future frothing. The BDA has been given one and a half months for the purpose, KSPCB Chairman Ramachandra told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of Online Consent Management System Extended Green Node-Karnataka (XGN-Karnataka) and the microbiology section at the Central Environmental Laboratory.

Senior Environmental Officer S Nanda Kumar pointed out there are many households around lakes and each uses four kg of detergent which is going untreated into the lakes, leading to frothing.

The KSPCB has formed a six-member committee for lake protection which will check maintenance and operations of sewage treatment plants. The board is also in the process of forming vigilance and watchdog committees on lake management. Reports prepared by these committees will be reviewed every four weeks and criminal cases filed against the offenders, said Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment B Ramanath Rai.

He said the Central Pollution Control Board had made it mandatory for apartments with 50 homes to have a sewage treatment plant of their own. The government is in discussions to enforce the ruling in Karnataka, he added.

According to Rai, to check pollution, the government is setting up three mobile laboratories equipped with sampling and monitoring facilities for water, air and other waste. Besides, the KSPCB is procuring 12 mobile vans at Rs 13 lakh each to check vehicular and noise pollution. These will come up in the next three months, he added.

On the delay in enforcing the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority Act, 2014, Rai said that rules were being framed in that regard and the file was before the Parliamentary Affairs Committee for review. Once that is done, a gazette notification will be issued, he said but didn’t set a time frame for enforcing the law.

Ramachandra said Karnataka was on the way to become a tech-savvy state. The World Bank’s flagship report on the Ease of Doing Business, released in 2015, ranks India at 142. It has ranked Karnataka ninth and Gujarat first in IT applications and processing. Commercial Taxes Department got 97 per cent marks and the KSPCB 56 per cent, he added.

KSPCB Member-Secretary S Shanthappa and former chairman Vaman Acharya were also present at the event.