The committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to oversee compliance of its orders on contamination of waterbodies in the city, especially Bellandur lake, Agara lake and Varthur lake, met for the first time on Monday.
Panel members
The committee, headed by former Lokayukta N. Santhosh Hegde, was constituted following an NGT order on December 6, 2018. Other members include T.V. Ramachandra from IISc., a nominee from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and a nominee from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). U.V. Singh, former Vigilance Chief of Lokayukta, has been appointed as an additional member by the committee.
“The first meeting only discussed the preliminaries. We discussed with the different agencies if the directions that have been issued by the NGT have been complied with,” said Mr. Hegde. “Various programmes drawn up by the different agencies were discussed.”
Officials have been instructed to provide feedback to the committee on the directions already in place on January 30. “Following this, the committee will visit all the three lakes to verify if the directions have been implemented effectively,” he said and added that the committee would submit a report to the NGT soon after.