Chennai: A day after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) here issued notice to the Karnataka government for allegedly polluting Cauvery by letting sewage into it, the Karnataka minister for Minor Irrigation, Shivaraj Tangadagi the man who made the revelation took a complete U-turn on the subject. Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle over phone from Bengaluru on Wednesday, Mr Tangadagi argued he never said Bengaluru’s untreated sewage is flowing into Tamil Nadu through Cauvery.
“I have been misquoted. I was replying to the queries from other members of the Upper House and elaborated on measures that were being taken to filter and treat the sewage water at Koramangala and Korattur to fill the parched lakes in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts”. Mr Tangadagi said Karnataka had approved a lift irrigation project at a cost of Rs 42 crore to utilise the sewage water that flowed through the Varthur valley (erstwhile Dakshina Pinakini River) to fill-up as many as 26 dry lakes in Chikkaballapur and 108 lakes in Kolar.
“Currently, a Detailed Project Report (DPR) is being prepared by my department in consultation with the experts. However, it would take some time to issue the work orders as it is in initial stages of preparation. We propose to do secondary treatment of the sewage water and fill the lakes in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts”, he said. To a query, the minister said he had not seen the petition filed in NGT to comment. An official in Karnataka Water Resources Department said the project was initially proposed in the year 2012 and the MP from Krishnagiri E.G. Sugavanam raised objections to the project in Parliament stating that Karnataka was building a check dam.
When contacted, advocate K. Sudhan, who moved the NGT, requested the Central Pollution Control Board and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to jointly inspect all points in Bengaluru and its suburbs suspected of letting or dumping untreated or partially treated waste into channels that eventually merge with Cauvery.
