The Hindu 01.12.2010
All civic bodies must have treatment plants: KSPCB
Staff Reporter
BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on Tuesday submitted to the Karnataka High Court that civic bodies must set up sewage treatment plants and that no exception could be made in respect of any of them.
The KSPCB made this statement when it was hearing petitions by two civic bodies challenging the registration of a criminal case by the KSPCB against its chief officers.
The civic bodies said the KSPCB had named the Chief Officer in the complaint before the local court and a criminal case, therefore, came to be registered against them.
They urged the court to quash the criminal case.
Defending the action, the KSPCB said it had registered criminal cases against chief officers of municipalities wherever these bodies had been discharging municipal waste or sewerage into water bodies.
Consent
It said civic bodies must obtain its consent under the Water Act before discharging any waste into water bodies.
Moreover, the civic bodies could not cite paucity of funds for their failure to set up treatment plants. It said the Water Act and other provisions mandated that each civic body must set up treatment plants so that the waste and sewerage was treated.
The petitioners contended that the chief officers did not have power on their own to ensure that the civic body took up construction of treatment plants.
They said the financial powers of the chief officers was limited to sanctioning money under Rs. 500 and any amount above that must have the consent of the council.
Justice B. Sreenivase Gowda adjourned further hearing of the case.
