Bengaluru: Karnataka has taken up the cudgels with the Centre, yet again demanding delisting of three of its rivers from the list of polluted waterbodies in the country.
Despite Karnataka’s repeated pleas since 2019, based on scientific grounds, to delist these rivers, the Union govt has turned a deaf ear to the state. This, according to Karnataka, has dented the state’s image in the conservation sector.
To press its demand, the state govt has yet again raised the issue with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to delist Aghanashini, Sharavathi, and Gangavali rivers as polluted.
Based on its monitoring of the water quality in rivers across India, CPCB updates its list of polluted rivers. In 2017, it had notified 17 rivers in Karnataka as polluted.
Acting tough on pollution-causing agencies, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) was successful in getting Malaprabha delisted.
Subsequently, in 2019, the Centre revised the list and added new rivers to it. However, much to the dismay of Karnataka, a few of the state’s pristine rivers, such as Aghanashini, Sharavathi, and Gangavali, were notified as polluted.
Eshwar Khandre, the state forest, environment and ecology minister, revealed that to date, there has been no further revisions to the 2019 list.
“As of 2023-24, Karnataka has 12 rivers notified as polluted by the Centre, and an action plan to revive these rivers has also been approved,” the minister said.
A total of 40 STPs, with a capacity to treat 657 MLD of wastewater, have already been set up. In addition, multiple reminders were sent to both MoEFCC and CPCB, Khandre added. “Yet, the Centre has not responded.”
“In fact, a few months ago, CPCB had agreed to send a team to Karnataka for a joint inspection, but the team never arrived,” an official from KSPCB claimed.