2 DECCAN HERALD B Friday, April 21, 2017

Metro

BENGALURU, DHNS: The Kar-nataka State Pollution ControlBoard (KSPCB) will put up alist of all the 585 industrieswhich are polluting Bellandurlake on its website.

“We are yet to receive theNational Green Tribunal orderbut based on media reports, wehave started issuing notices toindustries,”said KSPCB chair-man Lakshman.

He said the 585 industrieshave been categorised basedon the level of pollutants. “Wewill act tough against all ofthem. As many as 97 are ex-tremely hazardous and we willdeal with them as sternly aspossible,”said Lakshman.

On the decision to list viola-tors on its website, Lakshmansaid it is a way to shame thepolluters and make peopleaware who is behind the dam-age caused to Bengaluru’s ecol-ogy.

“It is another way of prevent-ing polluters from causingdamage. Once neighbours toocome to know about the pol-luter, they will raise an alarmon spotting any repeat viola-tion,”said Lakshman.

Greenboardtolistpollutersonitswebsite

BENGALURU, DHNS: ThehighcourtonThursdaystayedthe lower court proceedingsagainst two retired BWSSBengineers S Krishnappa andNNarasimhaMurthybookedforfailingtocontrolpollutionin the city’s lakes.

The pollution controlboard (KSPCB) had initiatedcriminal proceedingsagainst the engineers whohad failed to control the flowof sewage water into Madi-wala and Arakere lakes.

KSPCB had filed a com-plaintundertheprovisionsofWater Act, 1974, where theboardhascontendedthatthesewage was allowed to flowinto the stormwater drain(SWD), which ultimatelyreachedthelakes andpollut-edthem.ThepetitionerssaidsewagewaterflowedintothelakethroughSWDwhicharecontrolled by BBMP. Theysaid sewage flows from 110villages where BWSSB’s in-frastructure is not present.

HCstaysproceedingsagainst2retdBWSSBengineers

Lake cleaning, from Page 1

PNNayak,BDAengineer-member, said fencing of thelake, started a month ago,was70%done.“Weedingwillstart in three or four days.That is the immediate actionwe are taking,” he told themeeting.

BBMP engineers prom-ised to clear the debris fromthestormwaterdrains.TheirBWSSB counterparts saidtheywouldspeeduptheworkon sewage treatment plants.Some committee memberssuggested the water body behanded over to defence per-sonnel, as proposed earlier.“We are pressing for it, as itis the only way to revive thedying lake,” Ramachandrasaid.DH News Service

Govtbeginslakecleaning

BENGALURU: Citizens oftencomplaining about theirvoices not being heard maynot get the appropriate fo-rum to air their woes.

But here is an opportuni-ty for the residents of By-atarayanapura Assemblyconstituency to highlightwoes in their area and getthem redressed. DeccanHerald and Prajavani areholding ‘Janaspandana –Citizens for Change’ pro-gramme at the amphithe-atre in Sahakaranagar, be-hind Balamuri Ganapathitemple, at 10 am on Satur-day, April 22.

Agriculture Minister andlocal MLA Krishna Byre-gowda, corporators, officersfrom various governmentagencies such as BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Pa-like, Bangalore Develop-ment Authority, BangaloreWater Supply and Sewer-age Board, Bescom and po-lice will attend the event.

The event will coverJakkur, Thanisandra, By-atarayanapura, Kodigehalli,Vidyaranyapura, Dodda-bommasandra and Kuvem-punagar wards of theBBMP.

‘Janaspandana – Citizensfor Change’ held at variousplaces in the past broughtrelief to thousands of peopleas their grievances were ad-dressed instantly. Issuesthat are often discussed atJanaspandana includeroads, pavements, drains,streetlights, law and order,traffic, parks, playgrounds,open spaces, governmentschools, waste manage-ment, khata-related prob-lems, tax collection, water,sewage, lakes and poweroutages.

Citizens willing to speakabout the civic woes in theirlocalities should reach thevenue by 9 am and registertheir names.

They can contact Chan-drashekhar on 99017 21060or email at janaspan-dana@printersmysore.co.inDH News Service

GetgrievancesredressedatJanaspandana

GENERALBangalore University and EnableIndia: Workshop on Braille, JnanaJyothi auditorium, Central College,11 am.National College: Felicitation tofreedom fighter H S Doreswamy, Dr HN Multimedia conference hall, Nation-al College, Basavanagudi, 11 am.Karnataka Human Rights Commis-sion: One day workshop for healthworkers and public for awareness onhuman rights and protection, City Pri-mary Health Centre, BBMP MaternityHospital premises, Palace Guttahalli,10.30 am.Exhibition: ‘Crystal’ jewellery andclothes exhibition, Hotel Lalit Ashok,Kumara Krupa Road, 10.30 am.CULTURALSri Rama Seva Mandali: 79th RamaNavami Music Festival, concert byTrichur brothers, Vidyabhushan,21/1, 4th Main, 2nd Cross, Fort HighSchool premises, Chamarajpet,6.30 pm.Institute of World Culture: Talk by HS Satyanarayana on “B G L Swamy”,Wadia Hall, B P Wadia Road, Basa-vanagudi, 6.15 pm.Bengaluru Lalitkala Parishath: Playon “Beedi Bimba Rangada Thumba”,written by Karanam Pavan Prasadand directed by Nandeesh Acharya,Dr H N Kalakshetra, 36th Cross, 2ndMain, 7th Block, Jayanagar, 6.30 pm.Aishwarya Kalaniketan: Comedyplay “Kirik Currency” directed by RajuVaividhya, Udayabhanu Kalasangha,R K Mutt Layout, Kempegowda Nagar,7 pm.RELIGIOUSSharada Tutorials: Discourse on“Transcendental Meditation” by RishiSeshadri, Tutorial premises, No 50,

In city today

HC permits UBHL toseek more time inarbitration matterBENGALURU: The High Courtof Karnataka on Thursday per-mittedUnitedBreweries(Hold-ings)Ltd(UBHL)togetconsentfrom the official liquidator forextension of time for pro-nouncement of award in a sep-aratearbitrationmatter involv-ing the embattled company.

CounselforUBHLplacedbe-forethecourtaletteraddressedtoJusticeSPBharucha,thefor-mer Chief Justice of India whois the arbitrator in arbitrationproceedings between UBHLandothersandZuariFertilizersand Chemicals and others.

UBHLsoughtthecourt’sper-missionforextensionoftimetopronounce the award in arbi-trationforsixmonthsfromFeb-ruary 18, 2017. UBHL filed anOriginalSideAppealagainsttheruling by a single judge to windup the company for its inabilityto pay loans to internationalcompaniesandaconsortiumofbanks.UBHLarguedthatithadnoobligationtorepaytheloansasitwasonlytheprincipalguar-antor.

The lenders filed a caseagainst UBHL seeking theirdues from the now-defunctKingfisher Airlines. UBHL hadgiven corporate guaranteesfor loans to run Kingfisher,whichcausedthecollapseofVi-jay Mallya’s liquor business.Mallya owns 52.34% in UBHL.

AdivisionbenchofChiefJus-

tice S K Mukherjee and JusticePSDineshKumargavetheper-mission and adjourned thehearing until April 25.

Land acquisitionThe High Court of Karnatakasaid the state government cannolongerexercisepowerunderthe KIAD Act 1966 to acquireland for industrial use withoutconformingtotheprerequisitesprescribed under the Right toFair Compensation and Trans-parency in Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation & ResettlementAct 2013 (RFCTLARR).

JusticeAnandByareddypro-nounced the order on a batchofpetitionschallengingthelandacquisition proceedings underKIAD Act though RFCTLARRAct had came into effect fromJanuary 2014.

“The state government cannolongerexercisepowerunderSection3oftheKIADActwith-out conforming to the prereq-uisites as prescribed under the2013 Act,” the court said. Thecourt also said Section 3(1) andSection 28 of the KIAD Act,which empower the state to de-clare any plot as an industrialarea and acquire land, are re-pugnanttotheprovisionsoftheRFCTLARR Act. The benchsaid the scheme under theKIADActis“inconsistent”withthe provisions of the RFCT-LARR Act. DH News Service

Rain brings chill in air, todaycould be no differentBENGALURU: Cool weatherpersisted in the city as sev-eral areas experienced rain-fall on Thursday afternoon,which continued intermit-tently into the late evening.

According to India Meteor-ological Department (IMD),the city recorded 0.6 mm ofrainfall at 5.30 pm, which in-creased to 1 mm at 8.30 pm.HAL airport recorded 0.4 mmof rainfall but no rain wasrecorded at the KempegowdaInternational Airport.

Sundar M Metri, in-chargedirector, IMD Bengaluru, saidsimilar weather conditions

would prevail on Friday, withcloudy skies, rainfall and thun-dershowers towards theevening and night.

The rainfall brought relieffrom the heat and broughtdown temperatures. Maxi-mum temperature in the citywas 35.2 degrees Celsius andminimum 23.9 degrees Cel-sius. At the international air-port, maximum temperaturewas 35.2 degrees Celsius andminimum 24 degrees Celsiuswhile at the HAL airport, max-imum temperature was 34.8degrees Celsius and minimum23 degrees Celsius. Tempera-

tures are expected to remaininthisrangeonFriday, too.Therain was accompanied bythun-der in some areas, and windspeedwas30kmphat3.45pm.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Ma-hanagara Palike (BBMP) con-trol room received many callsregarding damage to trees. SixtreescamedowninRemcoLay-out,RPCLayout,Sunkadakatteand Basaveshwaranagar. Fif-teen tree branches fell in Nan-dinilayout,Basaveshwaranagar,Attiguppe, Vijayanagar, NRColony,BapujiNagarandotherplaces.DH News Service

Oxygen injections torejuvenate gasping lakeBENGALURU: A Bengalurustartup has offered to help re-vive Bellandur lake by intro-ducing oxygen injections intothe polluted waterbody.

Sunandan Lala, technicalconsultant at PCI Gases, toldDH that they can offer a freemonth-long demonstration onhow inducing dissolved oxy-gen injections into the lakehelps revive it.

“This method is common inEurope, but has never beentried here. If the governmentgives us a 8x6 metre plot, in amonth we assure positive re-sults. The government will justhave to provide us the electric-ity to operate our machines,”he said.

Explaining the model, hesaid they have equipmentfilled with oxygen. Into this, asmall quantity of lake water ismixed and then released back

into the lake.“As the lake is highly pollut-

ed, oxygen cannot be intro-duced directly into it. Hence,it has to be dissolved withthe same water and then re-leased into the lake. This is ef-fective as oxygen can be in-duced as and when required,”he said.

“We have a 30-35 cubic feetcylinder ready at our plant inBommasandra to be used im-mediately. We are a three-month-old organisation in thecity, generating oxygen forhospitals and industries,” hesaid.

Lala said this method wouldnot cost the government morethan Rs 4 lakh to 5 lakh andcan be adopted along with toother methods for quick re-sults, especially on improvingthe water quality.DH News Service

KLCDA plans to implement wetlandsmodel to revive polluted lakeBosky Khanna

BENGALURU: While the ur-ban development depart-ment is chalking out engi-neering methods to revivethe 900-acre Bellandur lake,the Karnataka Lake Conser-vation and DevelopmentAuthority (KLCDA) is plan-ning to implement the wet-land model for cleaning thelake and conserving it.

G Vidyasagar, KLCDA chiefexecutive officer told DH thatit is first important to stopdumping in the lake and workon that has already started.Then the work on reviving thelake is needed.

“The wetland concept ischeaper and faster. Of course,it calls for periodic mainte-nance which can be done. Thiswill be discussed with stake-holdersonFriday.Wealsohaveto see how to handle hyacinthand silt accumulated over theyears. KLCDA will discuss withIISc also,” he said.

The wetland concept imple-mented by Prof C R Babu atthe Yamuna Biodiversity Park

Garment units aroundBellandur in a tizzy afterNGT’s closure orderMost of theunits were saidto have shiftedfrom Tiruppurin Tamil NaduBENGALURU: A day afterthe National Green Tribunal(NGT) ordered the stategovernment to close indus-tries around Bellandur lake,several garment factoriesinvolved in dyeing andwashing clothes were in astate of panic.

The NGT ordered closureof 97 garment units which arepolluting the city’s biggest wa-terbody. Most of them aresmall units on Haralur Road,Kudlu Gate and Bommanahal-li and have moved here fromTiruppur in Tamil Nadu afterthe government there crackeddown on them.

A prominent fabric compa-ny with its head office in Ben-galuru has 30 units across thecity. Soon after the NGT order,its officials visited all the unitsasking their staff not to let outany untreated effluents.

Requesting anonymity, anexecutive of the companysaid: “We do not knowwhether we are among thosenamed in the list of 97 unitsbut we are taking extra pre-cautions. Since morning, oursuperiors have been visitingall our units.”

Karnataka State Industrial

Development Corporationchairperson C M Dhananjayasaid he will call on BengaluruDevelopment Minister K JGeorge and request him tochallenge the verdict in theSupreme Court.

Karnataka State PollutionControl Board chairman Lak-shman said the board is yet toreceive the order copy but no-tices have already been sent toall the polluters.

FKCCI hails NGTPresident of the Federation ofKarnataka Chambers ofCommerce and Industry(FKCCI) M C Dinesh hailedthe verdict saying FKCCI nev-er encourages or protectsthose polluting the environ-ment.

He said some industries,which moved here from Tirup-pur are the culprits and havethrived here due to patronagefrom powerful people.

He, however, pointed outthat industries doing theirbusiness honestly should notsuffer.

“There are lots of chal-lenges these days. Employ-ment generation has comedown in the state and Bescomhas increased the rates. Clo-sure would impact the em-ployment scenario,” said Di-nesh.

Joseph Crasta, past presi-dent of FKCCI, who echoedDinesh’s sentiments on theunits from Tiruppur, said theNGT verdict was good for thecity.DH News Service

Rainfall 0.6 mm

Humidity 60 pc

Sunrise 6.03 am

Sunset 6.33 pm

Moonrise 1.55 pm

Moonset 1.52 am(Relevant data recorded at

5.30 pm. Source: IMD)

City weather

FORECAST: Partly cloudy sky.A spell of rain/thundershow-er likely during night.TEMPERATURESMaximum 35.2 CMinimum 23.9 C

‘Vicinity’ problem may hinder closingof industries around Bellandur lake

Uncertain future: ‘Highly-polluting’ HAL airport too in close proximity to water body

Rasheed Kappan

BENGALURU: Shutting downindustries that let out un-treated effluents into drainsleading to the Bellandurlake might not happen in ahurry. Reason: Lack of clari-ty on the extent of the lake'scatchment area.

Hundreds of small-scale in-dustrial units linked to gar-ments, laundry, dyeing, leathertanning and automobile main-tenance have sprung uparound the lake. Many, it is sus-pected, discharge their chemi-cal-rich waste water intostormwaterdrainsthatdirectlyflow into the lake.

But if the lake receives 447Million Litres Daily (MLD) ofuntreated sewage, shouldn'tthescopeoftheNationalGreenTribunal (NGT) order be ex-panded to cover 40% of thearea under Bruhat BengaluruMahanagara Palike (BBMP)?

Official estimates say asmuch as 1,400 MLD of sewageis generated in areas underBBMP's jurisdiction.

“Sewagegeneratedbyapart-ments, houses and other unitsin Bellandur and other areassurrounding the lake cannotexceed 2-3 MLD. How do youaccount for the 447 MLD?”wonders environmentalist

Industries, small and big, are directly responsible for the heavy metal contamination of thelake water, and the KSPCB should be squarely blamed for letting them operate, says Dr T VRamachandra from the IISc. KSPCB chairman Lakshman inspects a frothing Bellandur lake inthis DH file photo.

Nagesh Aras.The definition of 'vicinity'

would require more clarity.Aras explained, “For instance,would the Iblur lake – which islinked to the Bellandur lake bya 400m channel – be part ofthe latter's catchment area?Any pollutant that enters the

Iblur lake will reach the down-stream Bellandur lake in twohours.”

Industries would also meanthe big public sector undertak-ings, many of which lack ade-quate Sewage TreatmentPlants (STPs). Since thesePSUs were well outside the city

limits when they were estab-lished decades ago, STPs werenot mandated for them.

However, the city's explosivegrowth has brought these in-dustries well within the BBMParea. Many of them are in closeproximity to the Bellandurlake. So is the HAL airport,

classified under the extremered category by the KarnatakaState Pollution Control Board(KSPCB).

By implication, 'industries'could also include hundreds ofcar and bike garages that re-pair smoke-spewing automo-biles and release the pollutantsinto drains. This way, vehicularpollutants can take on an in-dustrial dimension. Airbornepollutants released by slow-moving vehicles settle downand are washed by rains intothe lakes adding to the heavymetal silt.

‘KSPCB's negligence’Industries, small and big, aredirectly responsible for theheavy metal contamination ofthe lake water, and the KSPCBshould be squarely blamed forletting them operate, contend-ed Dr T V Ramachandra fromIndian Institute of Science.

The KSPCB's negligence, hesaid, had led to mushroomingof polluting industries aroundthe lake. Zero discharge claimsare bogus. Even big aviationcompanies in the lake's vicinityare at fault. Samples testedfrom the Bellandur lake hadshown traces of aviation fuel.Stringent enforcement of therules by the KSPCB could haveprevented this, he added.DH News Service

A part of the lake scarred by an accidental fire early this year.DH FILE PHOTO.

in New Delhi and Prof T V Ra-machandra in Jakkur lake arevery inspiring, he said. Inputsfrom these two models will betaken for reviving Bellandurand Varthur lakes, he added.KLCDAalsointroducedtheen-gineered wetland model onAgara lake and it has shownpositive results, he said.

The engineered wetlandmodel includes mechanical, bi-ological and purification meth-

ods to treat sewage and cleana water body. But the wetlandconcept is purely biologicalwhere plants which absorb nu-trients and clean the waterbody are introduced.

Ramachandra from Centrefor Ecological Sciences, IIScsaid the wetland concept iscost-effective. But the biggestchallenge before the govern-ment is to stop the 400 mld ofsewage entering the lake.

“We started implementingthe wetland model in Jakkurlake in 2005, when the nitratelevel was very high. Earlier,Bellandur lake too had a lot ofwetlands, which peoplethought were a waste and re-moved them. They also en-croachedthearea.Asmallwet-land patch is seen towards thearea abutting the defenceland,” he said.

Ramachandra explainedthat the model is very simple.A bed of plants like Colocasia,Typha and Pandana, are intro-duced into the lake. Theseplants are commonly foundand have the ability to absorbnutrients like nitrogen andphosphoruswhichconvention-al sewage treatment plantscannot clean. Also, installing atertiarytreatmentplant insucha large water body is a verycostly affair.

“But now, even after intro-ducing all this, the lake will notget cleaned in two weeks.The government has to stopthe sewage immediately,” hesaid.DH News Service

The city weather cooled down following the unseasonal rainfall on Thursday evening. DH PHOTO

4th Cross, Malleswaram, 6 pm.Vedanta Satsanga Kendra: “SatyamJnanamanantam Brahma” by K GSubraya Sharma, Vedanta Nilayam,Sakamma Gardens, Basavanagudi,9 am.Paramartha Vichara Sangha Trust:“Swarupanupamardena” by Dr K GSubraya Sharma, Adhyatma Mandira,V V Puram, 7.45 am.Sri Shankara Jayanthi Mandali:Talk on “Thaithiropanishath” by Yo-gesh Joshi, Sri Shankara JayanthiMandali, Shankara Krupa Road, 16thCross, III Block, Jayanagar, 6 pm.Ragigudda Sri Prasanna An-janeyaswamy BhaktamandaliTrust: Talk on “Adhyatma Ra-mayana” by Lakshmeesh Bhat,Sankrutika Mandali, 9th Block,Jayanagar, 6.30 pm.