KSPCB risks losing way with its tightrope act

Long accused of inaction against offenders, the pollution watchdog is increasingly being pushed towards reform by the authorities

August 6, 2019. Mandara, a tranquil village of about 30 houses near Pachanady in Mangaluru woke up to a flood — of unprocessed plastic and sanitary waste. About 3 lakh tonnes of waste piled up in a “landfill” lined with a thick rubber sheet in an erstwhile paddy field in the hilly area slid off, shattering the lives of villagers.

About 18 acres of agricultural land and nearly 50 houses were submerged in the garbage. The area became unlivable overnight. The village paid for the sins of the city.

A petition filed in the high court in August 2020 by the Karnataka Legal Services Authority, on behalf of the victims of the Pachanady catastrophe, sought punishment for those responsible for the tragedy.

Read: Reimagining environmental governance; time to rethink ‘pollution control’ boards

Till then, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), vested with the responsibility of monitoring pollution and taking punitive action against violators of environmental norms, had not filed criminal complaints against anyone in this case.

In the hearing in September 2020, the Karnataka High Court sought the details of criminal cases filed by the KSPCB under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and their status.

The KSPCB’s submission was shocking: Only 58 criminal cases were filed under Section 19 of the said Act. Only five cases resulted in a conviction. Many acquittals were due to the technical problem of cases not being filed by designated Regional Officers.

The hearings revealed that the board was unaware that its officers were authorised to file complaints about such offences. The board fixed this problem later via a notification.

However, in one of the hearings, the high court expressed concerns about “the manner in which the board is functioning”. It asked the state government to consider an inquiry by a senior civil servant into the functioning of the board. Thus, KSPCB's problems accumulated over decades are now about to be scrutinised.

The KSPCB, formed in 1974, originally looked only at preventing and controlling water pollution. But today, it has the task of preventing and monitoring all forms of pollution, under various environment and solid waste-related Acts.

Even though prevention of pollution falls within the ambit of KSPCB, previous incidents indicate that the board acts only when there is a push from some other agency.

Consider this: In Karnataka, two clusters — Baikampady in Dakshina Kannada and Bhadravati in Shivamogga — were identified as critically polluted. The Centre placed a moratorium on establishing industries here, which was lifted in 2011 after the KSPCB submitted an action plan.

The Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index 2018 (CEPI) reassessment shows both these clusters in “other polluted area” category. However, Bengaluru’s Peenya industrial area and Jigani-Bommasandra have become “critically polluted” while Raichur industrial area and Kolhar industrial area in Bidar were “severely polluted,” indicating that the KSPCB did not replicate the lessons learnt from Baikampady in Peenya.

A 2018 study by the National Geophysical Research Institute commissioned by the KSPCB found a heavy concentration of heavy metals in the groundwater in Peenya — a wake-up call for the KSPCB for better water treatment and action to stop the establishment of highly polluting factories.

Now the KSPCB is in the process of establishing a Common Effluent Treatment Plant in Peenya. The industries under ‘red category’ here have installed in-house effluent treatment plants, while those refusing to comply with the norms have been issued closure orders.

Tackling polluting citizens

The KSPCB is now increasingly serving notices to violators. Recently, 300 residences along the Koramangala and Chalaghatta valley were served notices and were asked to connect their sewage lines to the BWSSB’s underground drainage network or face power cut.

In March, the Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF) bought a stay from the high court when the KSPCB sought over Rs 290 crore from over 268 apartment complexes for failure to comply with sewage treatment plant (STP) norms.

Hareesh Sivaram, the legal advisor representing the BAF, sees this as targeted harassment by a Board that finds it easier to go after ordinary citizens rather than industries or government departments.

While the carrot-and-stick approach of closure orders works with citizens, other government departments like the BWSSB or BBMP are tough customers.

“The BWSSB is the biggest polluter in Bengaluru. The BWSSB UGD in Bellandur does not have any STP. They are building an 800-KLD STP now. For so many years, they were dumping millions of tonnes of sewage into the lake,” says Sivaram.

As the Pachanady case demonstrates, the KSPCB is sometimes reluctant to pull up fellow government departments for their inaction. Srinivasulu, the current member secretary of the KSPCB, says the issue is more complicated. Rather than being an independent regulatory body, he sees KSPCB as a part of the government, so coordination and persuasion go first, punitive action being a last resort.

For this reason, the KSPCB, while serving show-cause notices to BBMP and BWSSB officials, has also helped BWSSB with funds for an STP.

However, Leo Saldanha, co-founder of Environment Support Group thinks that only thing KSPCB has to do to improve its functioning is to implement the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, Air and Water Acts, nothing else.

Challenges remain

Just on Friday, alert residents of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru, along with KSPCB marshals caught a tanker emptying out effluents in a stormwater drain.

However, KSPCB is short-staffed to carry out inspections required to catch a significant number of violations. This was flagged even in a 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report.

Today the KSPCB has a staff strength of 709, a number deemed adequate for the city that Bengaluru was 15 years ago. Over 57% of the Board’s posts are vacant; there are just 30% scientific staff present. The balance is filled up with contractual posts and employees from a “manpower agency”.

Srinivasulu admits to the problem and says revising the number of staff will help the board do better.

A N Yellappa Reddy, a former IFS officer who was the Secretary of the Department of Ecology and Environment, sees the lack of technological innovation to monitor pollution as a major problem. “KSPCB does not even have the technology to measure dioxins in the air,” he observes.

Dioxin is a carcinogenic compound released by burnt plastic, commonly found in the areas where garbage is set on fire, which is a common practice in Bengaluru.

Political appointments

The post of KSPCB chairperson has mostly been a political appointment. A Supreme Court order passed in September 2017 directed all the state governments to frame rules within six months for the same. The rules were not framed by the successive governments, while political appointments continued.

When Chikkaballapur MLA Dr K Sudhakar was chosen as the chairman in 2019, the appointment was challenged through a PIL before the high court. The high court observed that it was wrong to appoint anyone without the rules and Sudhakar had to step down.

Subsequently, the state government framed the guidelines, which were challenged in the high court as they did not prescribe any educational and on-field experience qualifications, as prescribed under the Water Act and the Air Act.

Yellappa Reddy says that qualified people with required experience must be chosen to head the board, in the capacity of chairman, member secretary and Board members.

He says people with calibre inside the KSPCB have been cornered and demoralised in the past, by way of reversing closure orders issued by them and disrespecting their knowledge and wisdom.

Srinivasulu feels that both “content and intent” matter, to head the board. People who can be the voice of the cause with scientific knowledge and the right intent can help the board do better, he says. He adds that pollution must become a public issue, with more people becoming aware of problems.

These days, the KSPCB is busy undertaking a slew of awareness activities. On the other hand, regulatory work continues. With the sword of an inquiry now dangling on its head, will the KSPCB finally succeed in shedding its reputation for inaction? Only time will tell.

(With inputs from Ambarish B in Bengaluru)