Govt not adhering to NGT order on Bellandur lake: NGO

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday allowed an NGO to file a detailed application after it alleged that the Karnataka government was not following the Tribunal’s order on preventing pollution in Bellandur lake.

When the matter came up before the green bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra Singh Rathore, an advocate representing Namma Bengaluru Foundation, an NGO, said the state government was not implementing its order as several establishments continued to discharge effluents into the water body. However, the Karnataka government advocate said the government was complying with all the directions passed by the bench.

The bench directed the NGO to file a written application mentioning details and posted the matter for the next hearing on July 13.

Meanwhile, automobile dealers in the vicinity of Bellandur lake withdrew their application as they said a joint inspection team gave clearance to their normal functioning.

On the NGO’s plea, the bench however denied those dealers any liberty to file a fresh application in future if the joint inspection team found them to be discharging effluents into the lake. Earlier, they had approached the tribunal saying that the joint inspection team constituted by the state government had ordered the closure of their showrooms alleging that they were discharging effluents into the lake.

The green panel had earlier ordered the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to close down 76 polluting industries around the lake and directed them to set up an effluent treatment plant. Besides, the bench also directed the state government to constitute a joint inspection team to spot verify all establishments, including industries, residential and commercial setups, to check whether they have set up treatment plants.

On February 20, the NGT had taken suo motu cognizance of media reports and photographs of the incident in which a fire broke out in the lake and issued notices to the Union Environment Ministry and different agencies of the Karnataka government asking them to submit a report on the steps taken to prevent such incidents.