3 More Cities In Odisha Under HC Scanner For River Pollution

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has issued notices to civic bodies of Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Sambalpur over discharge of untreated sewage and polluting effluents into rivers within their jurisdiction.

Secretaries of the three municipal corporations have been asked to remain online during the hearing on April 8.

The direction came after the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) filed an affidavit on Monday, indicating the deteriorating water quality in rivers flowing through Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela while the court was hearing a PIL on pollution of Kathajodi river due to unchecked discharge of untreated sewage from Cuttack city at Khan Nagar.

The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik said, “The secretaries of the three corporations shall inform the court of the steps taken for installation of sewage treatment plants and complying with the norms specified by the OSPCB regarding discharge of effluents into the rivers within their respective jurisdictions.”

As the court expressed displeasure over the civic bodies’ practice of releasing sewage and effluents into the river without bothering to set up sewage treatment plants, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) assured that necessary steps are being taken to divert the sewage to a nearby treatment plant.