Bengaluru prison misses sewage plant deadline yet again

The Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, which houses 4,679 inmates, is one of the major polluters of the Parappana Agrahara Lake, near Sarjapur Road.

The jail authorities and the Public Works Department were served three notices by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to construct a sewage treatment plant, which they ignored.

The KSPCB had sent the notices to the prison authorities on June 16, 2017, June 6, 2018, and July 25, 2018.

On June 13, 2017, KSPCB chairman Lakshman even inspected the STP site. Prison authorities had sought consent to establish the STP in 2014.

The latest deadline set to complete the project lapsed on Tuesday. Irked by this, the KSPCB has now decided to summon the prison authorities and the PWD to question them on the inaction.

KSPCB officials are also contemplating action against the officials. “Ideally, legal action is taken and closure orders are issued for not installing STP. But that cannot be done here,” said a KSPCB official.

Dhananjay, the PWD engineer in charge of the project, said that 90% of civil works are over and the STP will be completed by September 17. However, when DH visited the site, workers and jail staff said that it is highly unlikely that the STP would reach even 60% completion by September.

Dhananjay also said that a request for an extension of the deadline has been submitted. But KSPCB officials denied receiving such request. “We have directed the prison authorities to divert the waste to the existing Karnataka Housing Board STP. The soak pits adjoining the lake are overflowing. We had also directed the authorities to send their biomedical waste to the Maridi Eco Industries once a week. But none of these orders has been followed,” Lakshman said.

Somashekhar, Superintendent, Parapana Agrahara Central Prison, said they had sought time until September. He said that since there is only one tanker available, it cannot carry the waste to the KHB unit every day. So some waste is being recycled in the garden and food waste is fed to pigs.

BBMP officials said that they were not aware of the matter.