The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal said the practice of Vanjaleshwara Temple in Karur of illegally digging a channel to draw water from the river during the Mahakumbabhishekam held in 2021 was ‘deprecated’.
The bench made the remarks while passing orders on an application relating to pollution of the Amaravathi river by dyeing units, textiles and other industries and the municipality.
The bench made the remarks after a joint committee constituted by the Tribunal submitted that the temple authorities dug a 850 metre length channel from the river without permission for diverting fresh water to the temple tank. After authorities issued a show cause notice, 350 metres of the channel was closed but the remaining was yet open.
“In future they should not resort to such practice and they should obtain necessary permission from the Water Resources Department (WRD) for drawing water from the river for such purposes if any required. During festival season, they are directed to take steps to avoid discharge of untreated sewage into the waterbody and take steps to collect sewage generated during the festival season and dispose of the same in a scientific manner without discharging the same into waterbody,” the bench said.
Further, the bench directed that if such a channel was not closed after the festival, the WRD should close it and recover the expenses from the temple authorities.
The bench directed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to ensure that industries having more than 50 employees to install Sewage Treatment Plants to treat the sewage and utilise the treated sewage within their premises.
The Commissioner of Karur City Municipal Corporation was also directed to complete the bio-mining of legacy waste in the existing dump yards at the earliest possible time. The bench issued a number of other directions to the authorities with regard to solid and liquid waste management.
