HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has directed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) to file a report within a week on a plea to protect Kapra lake situated at Sainikpuri in Secunderabad.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice U Durga Prasad Rao was hearing a PIL filed by the Lakeview Residents Association questioning the inaction of the GHMC, TSPCB and the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) in not taking any preventive steps for protecting Kapra lake from being contaminated due to rampant discharge of sewage and garbage into the lake thereby causing significant health and environmental hazards to the public.
Petitioner’s counsel N Vijay submitted that the association has tested the effluent water being discharged into the lake in a private laboratory on March 1 this year. Alarmingly out of the 17 parameters prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for safe discharge of effluents into ground water/water bodies, nine parameters are outside the permissible limits, deeming the discharge highly unsafe to be released into Kapra lake. Further, the nitrate level in the lake was found to be at 110.3 mg/litre as against the permissible limit of 45.0 mg/litre. As a result the Kapra lake is now filled with mildew, algae and trash.
The counsel further submitted that the monumental neglect on the part of respondent authorities in taking steps to preserve Kapra lake or check uncontrolled sewage disposal into it has resulted in the lake becoming a cesspool of mosquitoes, insects and reptiles.
After hearing the case, the bench directed the GHMC commissioner and TSPCB to file a report within a week and posted the matter to next Wednesday for further hearing.