Open wells in villages near River Kothari were found with toxic levels of chromium, lead, iron, zinc, sodium
River Kothari flows along Rajasthan's industrial belt. Photo: Nand Kishore Jangid / Youtube The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) to recover environmental compensation from Bhilwara municipal council for its failure to take action to remedy pollution of River Kothari.
Even though Rs 400 crore has been granted to the state for mitigation of the problem, projects have been delayed for more than two years, the tribunal noted March 15, 2023.
The green court directed the principal secretary of the urban development department to monitor the issues personally, ensure there is proper utilisation of the budget and projects under construction are completed within the stipulated time.
The official was further directed to ensure there isn’t any discharge of untreated water into the water bodies and disposal of solid waste is done in accordance with rules. In case of violation of the environmental rules, “necessary punitive actions must be initiated against the erring officers”.
The municipal council, Bhilwara and RSPCB were directed to submit the further action taken and progress report before the next date of listing, which has been scheduled for April 27, 2023.
“The responses filed by the municipal council are tragic in nature, wherein the municipal council expressed its inability in controlling river pollution and even its original work of collection of revenue is transferred to contractual agencies,” the bench of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh of NGT, central bench, Bhopal observed.
The authorities of Bhilwara municipal council were reminded so many times to take remedial actions for treatment of sewage and wastewater as well as disposal of solid waste but no progress has been reported, the counsel for the RSPCB complained.
An environmental compensation of Rs 2.4 crore up to the period of October 31, 2021 was imposed on the municipal council and, vide letter dated December 12, 2022, additional compensation to the tune of Rs 1.11 crore was imposed for the period of November 2021 to June 2022. The municipal council, Bhilwara has not responded to notices.
Further assessment of environmental compensation after June 2022 is under consideration before the SPCB, the court was informed.
The application was filed before NGT January 13, 2022 by Babulal Jajoo. The city of Bhilwara, Rajasthan is located in a critically polluted area due to the presence of various textile industries as well as heavy industries around the district.
The most open wells in villages near the Kothari river, which flows along the industrial belt, had chromium, lead, iron, zinc and sodium above the norms set by the Bureau of Indian Standards, Poisoned Water, a 2004 paper by the state public health engineering department found.
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