PCMC administration draws flak for rising pollution

The issue was raised by corporator Tatya Kadam who forwarded a motion of adjournment of the meeting to protest against the alleged failure of the administration in taking any action. Amrut Parhad and other corporators who supported the adjournment motion fired a volley of querries at the health officer Dr K Nagkumar to know what action had been taken over the last one month. Refering to the PCMC environment status report, Shreerang Barne said that the corporation had a record on only 150 industries against the 2000-odd industries. Nandu Jadhav warned that if proper precautions were not taken in time, the river water between Bebad Owhal and Ravet too would get polluted because of release of effluents by paper mills in the area. This, he said, would pose serious problems in getting pure drinking water for the township.

Congress party leader Nana Shitole criticised the administration for not giving satisfactory replies to the queries raised by the corporators and demanded that the meeting be adjourned to condemn the administration. Dr Nagkumar said that while samples of the river water were sent to laboratories of public health department, National Chemical Laboratory, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, and private institutions, the reports were still awaited. Reports from two private laboratories had stated that the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was very high as compared to the stipulated norms. The reports from other laboratories will help in identifying the chemicals responsible for the death of the fish.