Kochi: After over seven years of its inception, the Pampa River Basin Authority, formed to conserve the holy river and its basin, still remains on paper even as the pollution level of the river is on the rise. The authority, formed on August 2008 with the focus on gradually lessening the pollution, was disfunct for over six years with no laid down rules or a structure.
However at the fag end of the previous government, environmentalists had high hope with the office for the authority mooted to be set up at the Aranmula civil station and steps taken for deploying qualified staff. However, now the process has again been put on the backburner with the government refusing to extend the term of Project Director George Chackachery who tried to get the Authority get going about its business and even managed to conduct a study which identified nearly 100 “hot spots” across 35 panchayats and one municipality along which the river flows.
The Authority was also in the process of carrying out the first major initiative -- a Rs 200 crore project that aims at providing drinking water to Sabarimala and near-by areas. “Now the Authority is headless and limited to a group of eight secretary level officials. It required co-ordination of at least 12 departments if fruitful action is to be taken to conserve the river. For that a senior administrative officer should come at the helm. The government should not delay in taking the step,” said N K Sukumaran Nair, General Secretary, Pampa Parirakshana Samiti.
