The surveillance by the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) against the pollution issues in Eloor and Edayar industrial regions has been hit by lack of adequate staff members and infrastructural support.
The Environment Surveillance Centre at Eloor is yet to have an assistant environment engineer, whose services could be used exclusively for monitoring the river and the industrial area. Senior board officials in Ernakulam said the request for such a post at the Eloor centre had been pending for long.
The board is depending on persons employed on contract basis for collecting samples in the wake of illegal discharge of effluents into the river. They lack state-of-the-art equipment to ensure proper sampling. The surveillance camera installed at the regulator-cum-bridge at Pathalam has not been functioning and no steps have been taken to repair it.
The residents and environmentalists have been complaining that the board has not been able to collect samples without delay after an incident of effluent discharge into the river. The efforts to locate the source of pollution and the violators have been hit owing to the lack of staff at the central lab of the board. Nearly 60 permanent posts have been lying vacant, according to senior officials. The Public Service Commission has not taken steps to fill the vacancies.
