Eluru: Member of the CentralEmpowered Committee constituted by Supreme Court Chandrashekhar Goyal, member secretaries Dr JR Bhatt G Bhanumathi, committee members Sunil Limaye, and Prakash Chandra Bhatt reviewed the environment and pollution in the Kolleru area with officials of irrigation, Panchayat Raj, roads & buildings, Eluru Municipal Corporation, RWS, and other departments of the district at the Collectorate here on Wednesday.

On the occasion, Goyal said that the committee members ordered the Irrigation Department SE Nagarjuna Rao to submit a report on the irrigation drains that meet the Upputeru, the measures being taken to prevent pollution entering Kolleru through the drains, and the desilting of the drains.

He said that there are 47 non-notified drains within the Kolleru 5th contour and 67 notified drains beyond the Kolleru 5th contour. All of these meet in Upputeru. Before declaring Kolleru as a wildlife sanctuary, the committee members ordered Panchayat Raj SE Ramanamurthy to submit a report on the problems of internal roads in Kolleru villages, link roads connecting villages, their current maintenance, newly constructed and under-construction roads and road construction and maintenance of roads within the Kolleru sanctuary.

Later, the committee members ordered the Eluru Municipal Corporation Commissioner to submit a report on the sanitary waste of Eluru city, waste treatment capacity, and the sanitary waste of Eluru city that meets in Kolleru.

Eluru Municipal Corporation Commissioner Bhanu Pratap said that 32 MLD of waste is released in Eluru city, of which 7 MLD is sanitary waste. He said that a plant that treats 5 MLD of waste is in Eluru. He said that another plant to treat 50 MLD of waste is being set up. He informed the committee members that the remaining waste is reaching Kolleru through Tamilleru.

The committee members ordered Pollution Control Board EE Venkateswara Rao to submit a detailed report on the environment, pollution conditions, water used for fish farming, pollution of drinking water, pollution caused by waste flowing into Kolleru by industries, etc.,

EE Venkateswara Rao informed the committee that pollution in drinking water, groundwater and drains in Kolleru will be monitored from time to time.

The committee members ordered the Fisheries Department officials to submit a report on how many types of fish are farmed in Kolleru, health problems due to consumption of fish produced in polluted water, details of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used for fish farming, pollution caused in Kolleru due to them, etc. Fisheries Commissioner Ramashankar Nayak explained that waste from Vijayawada city is being discharged into Kolleru through Budameru.

The committee members ordered that the officials of the relevant departments should promptly send the information requested by the committee to the committee through the district collector.

State Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Kanumuri Raghuramakrishnam Raju, Zilla Parishad Chairperson Ghanta Padmasree, MLAs Dr Kamineni Srinivas, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, Patsamatla Dharmaraju, Special Chief Secretary to the Government, Forest Department Anantharamu, Forest Principal Chief Conservator Ajay Kumar Nayak, SP K Pratap Shiva Kishore, DFOs Shubham, Vijaya, DRO V Visveswara Rao, RDO Achyut Ambarish, and officials from various departments participated.

Later, Chandrashekhar Goyal, member secretaries Dr JR Bhatt, G Bhanumathi, committee members Sunil Limaye and Prakash Chandra Bhatt were felicitated with mementos and shawls by District Collector K Vetriselvi. It may be mentioned here that the committee was on a two-day tour of the district to conduct field visits and interaction with stakeholders of Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary. On Tuesday, the committee visited various villages falling under the jurisdiction of Kolleru lake.