Bengaluru: In an unprecedented move the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) during its board meeting on January 29 issued Consent for Operation (CFO) till 2023 to Oracle India located at Kadubeesanahalli village in Varthur Hobli on Outer Ring Road.
A senior KSPCB official pointed out that such decisions are usually taken during Consent Committee meeting and not at a board meeting.
In its January 15 edition, Deccan Chronicle had revealed that the board had earlier refused to give CFO to the commercial complex of the software company, as the Sewage Treatment Plant was constructed on a buffer zone, with respect to the drain.
Though the company has agreed to shift the STP within 6-9 months in its campus, the KSPCB officials said that it is short of man power to keep a check and there have been cases where such violations by industries are found only when they approach the board for the CFO renewal.
The official document reads, “The firm has requested to release the waste water to BWSSB plant on a temporary basis, till the company’s STP (680 KLD capacity) starts functioning.” According to KSPCB’s official document the nearby Mailasandra STP is designed to receive 75 MLD of sewage through network and from various firms through tankers. “The plant has already received more than the designed capacity,” the document further reads.
One of the whistleblowers who blew lid off the case said that would KSPCB be giving CFOs to several such cases during its board meeting. “What if several apartments come up and say that they do not have STP and hence a permission be given to them to dump sewage in Mailasandra STP? What kind of precedence is this?” the whistleblower asked.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has already notified four STPs' in the Bellandur Lake catchment area which have an intake of additional quantities and Mailasandra STP does not feature in them.
Though no written commitment is being made regarding the demolition of the STP or its shifting, but according to the pollution control board, the firm has agreed to relocate the STP.
The member secretary of the KSPCB Manoj Kumar said the firm has BWSSB's letter to dump the sewage in its terminal STP.
However, the document further says there was no confirmation from the BWSSB regarding sewage being taken into the BWSSB terminal STP for treatment.
