A special team, constituted by the district administration to check the veracity of complaints of Krishnapuram villagers that ‘South Ganga,’ a private desalination plant in the village has polluted the groundwater by letting out chemical effluents, visited the village and the plant on Monday and secured first hand information.
The team, led by Baby, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) visited the village, when the villagers led by M. Karunamurthy, secretary of the CITU affiliated Tamil Nadu Meenpidi Thozhirsanga Koottamaippu, who was championing the cause and local leaders S. K. Ganesan, Mohamed Rafiq and Abdul Kaleem explained their plight.
Expressing dismay over the recent report submitted by the District Environmental Engineer after the villagers staged protest in front of his office on May 2, the villagers alleged that the report was totally biased and urged Collector S. Natarajan and RDO not to give credence to it while taking a final decision. The villagers said they had been facing the problem for more than a decade and demanded immediate closure of the plant.
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The effluents posed serious health hazards to them and two people have died, they said. They also showed a man with renal failure to the team and explained that he could not continue treatment. On the orders of the RDO, he was admitted to the government hospital.
Ms. Baby, accompanied by District Food Safety Officer J. C. Bose, Deputy Superintendent of Police Baskaran and Livingston, District Environmental Engineer, inspected the plant with its representatives. Later, she held a meeting with officials in her office in the evening. The Collector is expected to take action based on the report submitted by the team.