Kochi: Continuing with its crackdown on polluting hotels and resorts in the hill station, the Munnar panchayat on Tuesday inspected the sites of two more hotels and unearthed more than a dozen pipes that carried waste including septage to the Muthirappuzha river. “We searched the areas where we suspected the hotels were dumping the waste in the river using JCBs and found about 12 pipes,” said J. Madhusoodanan Unnithan, panchayat secretary.
“We had to stop the action as it was too cold and was raining. We will continue the search on Wednesday, too, as we feel there are more pipes.” The panchayat will issue notices to two hotels—Sujatha Inn and Silver Tips—which are believed to be responsible for the waste dump, asking them to get sewage and waste treatment plants ready failing which they will be issued closure notice, Mr Unnithan said.
The panchayat had on Monday served closure notice on five hotels—Green Ridge Holiday Home, Bellmount Resorts, High Range Inn, Tea Garden Inn and Red Sparrow—asking them to close their operations immediately. “We had served notice on them on June 10 directing them to stop dumping waste to the river but they refused to even respond to the notice,” Mr Unnithan said.
“We had no option but to ask them to shut down operations.” The waste was dumped in places close to schools which made the lives of the students miserable, he said. “Many people in the downstream use the water for drinking,” he pointed out.
Some of the hotels had licences from the Pollution Control Board certifying they had waste treatment system but they failed to convince the panchayat officials of their operations. “We have refused license to some hotels despite having the PCB certificate,” Mr Unnithan said.
