No fund & power to run sewage treatment plant
THE GANGA in Kanpur is getting increasingly polluted, but how? Ironically, the city’s sewage treatment plant and the power crisis are being blamed for the mess.
General manager, Jal Nigam, Javed Ahmed Ansari, said the sewage treatment plant at Jajmau does not work during power crisis, which ultimately results in polluted water flowing into the river. And on an average, the city faces power cuts of over 10 hours in a day.
Though the Jal Nigam, which runs the sewage treatment plant, has a generator it’s not functional. Reason: The Jal Nigam does not have money to buy diesel. The cash crunch has worsened with the Kanpur Municipal Corporation and the tanneries not paying up their dues.
Municipal commissioner Badal Chatterjee in a departmental letter had referred to the facts recently. The question that arises now is: Why does the sewage treatment plant lie inoperative when it was conceived to save the Ganga from being polluted?
The Jal Nigam constructed the plant and it holds the responsibility to maintain it. However, 50 per cent of the maintenance cost was to be borne by the Kanpur Municipal Corporation and the tanneries here.
{{/usCountry}}The Jal Nigam constructed the plant and it holds the responsibility to maintain it. However, 50 per cent of the maintenance cost was to be borne by the Kanpur Municipal Corporation and the tanneries here.
{{/usCountry}}However, the tanneries and the Kanpur Municipal Corporation have violated the terms of agreement. The Jal Nigam is yet to get Rs 9 crore from the KMC and Rs 7 crore from the tanneries as maintenance fee.
During a recent meeting, the GM Jal Nigam had highlighted the problem of the department in the presence of district magistrate Anurag Srivastava. The GM had expressed his helplessness to run the generator during power crisis because shortage of funds and its inability to purchase diesel.
The DM had then asked the Kanpur Municipal Corporation to pay Rs 2.5 lakh per month to the Jal Nigam so that the generator could be operated and treated sewage flowed into the river.
But things have not changed even after that order. In his July 10 missive to Ansari, who is also acting general manager of the Ganga Pollution Unit, the municipal commissioner stated that the KMC was yet to receive Rs 2.5 lakh for payment to the Jal Nigam.