Upalokayukta directs district administration to prevent pollution of Nandini river

Criticising officials from the Mangaluru City Corporation, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the Revenue Department and Mescom for inaction in preventing the pollution of the Nandini on the outskirts of the city, Upalokayukta B. Veerappa has directed the Deputy Commissioner, the Police Commissioner, and the MCC Commissioner to take steps to prevent sewage from a private medical college and effluent from MCC’s STP from polluting the river. They were directed to submit separate action taken reports.

In an order passed on November 18, Justice Veerappa further directed the Assistant Commissioner, Mangaluru, and the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mangaluru (North), to visit the spot, and take further action by monitoring the working of all respondents in the suo motu case registered by him. The two officials were asked to submit a separate report.

He cautioned that the authority will take legal action against the two officers and respondent officials if no action was taken before December 20, which is the next date of hearing of the case.

He noted that the authority visited the spot on March 7 and 8 and then the case was registered suo motu on March 24. Even after eight months, no progress was made by the respondents. The respondent officials have not discharged their institutional duties.

The respondent officials, he said, have not taken any action to rectify the irregularities pointed out in the case. Though the waterbody falls within the MCC limits, the corporation had not taken any action. The medical college had encroached upon the buffer zone of the waterbody.

Sewage discharged from the institution and effluent from STP plant have polluted the waterbody. The pollution has not only affected the public, but also fish and other animals, he noted.

Though MCC Town Planner Raghu has submitted that there was violation by the medical college of constructing in the buffer zone, he was blissfully silent on the violation. KSPCB Environment Officer H. Lakshmikanth has submitted about pendency of the criminal proceedings initiated against MCC Commissioner on October 16.

The Assistant Director of Agriculture has not taken action to verify whether the paddy grown in the drainage water is feasible or consumable by the general public. The Revenue Inspector and the Panchayat Development Officer have submitted that they have filed FIR against the medical college, but the result is not forthcoming, the Upalokayukta noted.