Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has directed the TS Pollution Control Board and the GHMC commissioner to file a report within a week, explaining the steps being taken to protect the Kapra lake in Secunderabad from pollution.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice U. Durga Prasad Rao was dealing with a PIL by the Lakeview Residents Association of Kapra, questioning the failure of the GHMC, Hyderabad Water Board and the TSPCB to take steps for protecting the Kapra lake from contamination due to rampant discharge of sewage and garbage into the lake causing health and environmental hazard to the people living in the vicinity.
N. Vijay, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that members of association have got tested the effluents water being discharged into the lake in a private laboratory on March 1, 2016.
Alarmingly, of the 17 parameters prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board for safe discharge of effluents into the ground/water bodies, nine were beyond the permissible limits and highly unsafe to be released into the lake, Mr Vijay said.
He submitted that the Biological Oxygen Demand, a key parameter essential for survival of aquatic life, was found to be 75 mg per litre, as against the permissible limit of 30 mg per litre. He said that the Kapra Lake was now filled with mildew, algae and trash thrown by residents residing around the lake.
Counsel urged the court to direct the authorities to take steps to protect the lake as uncontrolled sewage disposal has resulted in the lake becoming a cesspool for mosquitoes, insects and reptiles to breed. The bench posted the case to next Wednesday.
TS told to set up R&R panel
The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday directed the TS government to constitute the State-Level Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, while granting the direction to the state government, pointed out that as per Section 51 of the Act 2013, it was mandatory for the state governments to constitute the authority and ordered it to do so within four weeks.
