Suo motu case to be filed against encroachment, pollution of river Nandini

Mangaluru: Upa Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa said that he will file a suo motu case against those who failed to check encroachment and pollution of river Nandini near Mukka and at Khandige.

Following the complaints from the public, Upa Lokayukta visited the spot on Saturday and took officials from Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for failing to protect the water body.

The water body is encroached upon by a building which is in progress. When asked about encroachment, the officials have failed to reply properly. Officials are not discharging institutional responsibility and constitutional obligations and are unfit to continue in the post they are in. “Encroachment of government land should not be allowed. It is our property and it is our responsibility to protect the water body and its surrounding environment,” said Upa Lokayukta.

Upa Lokayukta said that the water body does not look like a river with the pollution and growth of water hyacinth grown all over it and sought to know what the officials were doing all these days.

When KSPCB official informed Upa Lokayukta that notice has been served to the concerned for discharging waste water into the river, Justice Veerappa said serving mere notice is not sufficient. One should be persuaded to take it to a logical end. Mere serving of notice will not do justice. Dumping of soil on the water body to encroach it can not be tolerated, he added.

It may be recalled that Moodbidri MLA Umanath Kotian had raised the issue of pollution of the water body during the Disha meeting chaired by DK MP Capt Brijesh Chowta on March 1. On March 4, hundreds of villagers in the Moodbidri constituency, led by the Nandini Nadi Samrakshana Samiti, had staged a protest at Khandige against the pollution of the Nandini River.

The protesters had alleged that untreated wastewater from an educational institution, an MCC-run Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and other places had contaminated the river. In fact, the pollution of the water body had cast a shadow on the centuries-old annual ritual of catching fish in the river, conducted during the annual fair of Khandige Dharmarasu Sri Ullaya Daivasthana at Khandige in Chelairu.

According to the village, the river, which flows through 32 miles in more than 15 villages, had irrigated over 1,000 acres of agricultural land, besides quenching the thirst of people, animals, and birds and improving the ground water level.