The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Breathe easy, Patancheru is now livable

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Breathe easy, Patancheru is now livable

T. Lalith Singh

Industrial pollution abates, thanks to ceaseless struggle by activists and constant monitoring by judiciary

Patancheru has been struck off the moratorium list for critically polluted areas
Residents continue to suffer from effects of pollution, but it is less compared to earlier days

HYDERABAD: People in Patancheru are breathing comfortably now. Literally.

Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of civil society and constant monitoring by the judiciary, industrial pollution, which plagued Patancheru, had been controlled to a large extent.

The industrial town, some 60 km from here, which acquired international notoriety for being one of the most polluted areas, has now been struck off the moratorium list for critically polluted areas by the Ministry of Environment last week.

“Let me concede that we are at least breathing comfortably now. But effluent discharge into water bodies continues even now,” says A. Kishan Rao, who led the Patancheru Anti-Pollution Committee's struggle for more than two decades.

The general perception in the town now is about an improvement in ambient air quality as compared to the horrendous times of 1980s and 1990s when pollution was rampant. Not that the industrial town has metamorphosed into an ideal township, but having lived with the noxious emissions for long, the small changes are welcome here.

The local residents continue to suffer from the effects of pollution, Dr.Rao points out adding, “but their suffering is much less compared to earlier days. Even Nakkavagu is better that way.” Nakkavagu, the water body which bore the worst of dumping from local industries, has some respite after commissioning of the 18-km-long pipeline connecting the common effluent treatment plant here with Amberpet treatment plant, says Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) Member Secretary K. Madhusudan Rao.

Tied up with the common treatment plant alone, the industrial area has around 163 industries, of which 107 happen to be bulk drug units. “Industries joined the initiative and in Patancheru, Kajipally and Bollaram, they spent nearly Rs.225 crore on effluent treatment facilities,” the PCB Member-Secretary adds. Yet, no new pollution causing industries are welcome here, moratorium in place or not. “No more of these units are acceptable here. Allow others to come in. Let Information Technology (IT) infrastructure develop here at Patancheru,” advocates Dr. Kishan Rao.

As far as lifting of moratorium is concerned, he is not convinced at Bollaram being clubbed with Patancheru. The focus for long having remained on Patancheru helped this industrial estate but the same could not be said about adjoining industrial areas such as Bollaram and Kajipally. Units there continue to release untreated effluents into water bodies that criss-cross with those in Patancheru.

“Kaji Cheruvu and Asani Kunta are still being used for dumping there and they flow down to culminate in Nakkavagu,” Dr.Kishan Rao adds.

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