The Hindu : Front Page : House panel for probe into pollution of the Periyar

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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House panel for probe into pollution of the Periyar

Special Correspondent

Suggests formation of scientists’ committee

Says probe should be entrusted to an agency such as CBI
Panel members to meet Chief Minister on January 9

KOCHI: The Assembly committee on environment will recommend to the State government an investigation by “an agency such as the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation]” into the contamination of the Periyar by chemical factories in the Eloor-Edayar region.

The committee has decided to ask the government to form an independent committee of scientists to study the cause of frequent discolouration of the river since the Kerala State Pollution Control Board is “incapable of finding out” the source of chemical contamination.

Meeting

The committee, headed by Rajaji Mathew Thomas, MLA, took these decisions at a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.

V.D. Satheesan and T.U. Kuruvilla, MLAs; top authorities of the pollution control Board; and heads of many departments attended the meeting, called in the wake of the recent discolouration of the Periyar.

A team of Board officials, comprising its chairman, member-secretary, chief environmental scientist, chief environmental engineer and an environmental engineer, told the committee that it suspected three companies in the Eloor-Edayar region for the discolouration during the Bakrid-Christmas vacation. They were CMRL, Binani Zinc and Sud-Chemie India. However, it had no concrete evidence to pin them down.

“We told the committee that so far we could not find the source of origin of the water contamination,” a Board source told The Hindu.

Since the Board’s scientists were unable to find the cause, the committee decided to ask the government to constitute the independent, multidisciplinary technical committee. The Board officials said they welcomed the idea.

Criminal offence

Chemical contamination of the river is a major criminal offence as it poses a threat to the lives and health of lakhs of people who depend on the river for drinking-water needs, and hence, a criminal investigation is necessary, the committee members said at the meeting.

The committee asked the Principal Secretary, Irrigation, to get the ball rolling for the constitution of the Periyar River Authority. The committee members have decided to meet the Chief Minister, the Revenue Minister and the Water Resources Minister on January 9 to discuss it.

The frequent discolouration of the Periyar has caused alarm in the lower reaches of the river basin.

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