Vijayawada: The AP Pollution Control Board officials have been refusing to provide the data on the quality of the Krishna River water at Vijayawada, by saying that they were not authorised to reveal any information on it. The PCB's Joint Chief Environment Engineer Mr. N.V. Bhaskara Rao, at Vijayawada Zonal Labo-ratory said that he had received strict orders from his higher authorities not to reveal any information to the media or the public regarding the quality of river water. In fact, he is the authorized official to provide the laboratory information for the four districts including Krishna, Gun-tur, Prakasam and Nellore.
He suggested multiple options to get the quality of the water at the river to this correspondent including; consult the district collector or health department officials or the concerned department minister or Insti-tute of Preventive Medi-cine (IPM) or Rural Water Resource department or seek the information under the Right To Infor-mation Act (RTI), on the quality of the Krishna River water at the ghats in Vijayawada city. He confirmed that he would not give the information at any cost.
On the other hand, he claimed that the water quality in the river was good when compared with the 2004 Krishna River Puskharalu. The pollution board officials in the Vijayawada have been beating around the bush when asked why could not provide the information, even though they have the responsibility to provide the information to the public on the quality of the water.
Meanwhile, the AP PCB chairman Phani Kumar said the quality of the river water was good for bathing. He explained that they conducted laboratory tests every day during the Pushkaralu on Dissolved Oxygen and Biochemical Oxygen De-mand (BOD). He said that the DO was found in between 7 to 8 mg on in average of the first eleven days from August 12 to 22 in the Krishna River water at Vijayawada. At the same period, the BOD was found as 1.5 to 2.5 mg on in average. Both of them were in optimum level as per the pollution norms. He said that the DO should not be less than 5 gm and the BOD should not be more than 3 gm. He said that because of the florin mixing, continuous inflow of water and maintenance of cleanliness, the water was not contaminated.
