The Karnataka cabinet on Wednesday approved 31 projects worth Rs 2,550 crore in the Bengaluru division. However, the special cabinet held at Nandi Hills in Chikkaballapura district did not address the concerns over the "treated" waste water from the Hebbal Nagavara (HN) Valley in Bengaluru polluting the lakes and farm lands in Chikkaballapura.
During the press meet that followed the cabinet meeting, the local reporters raised concerns over the HN Valley project polluting the water bodies in the district, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah contended that the water was "safe" and the project was not meant for drinking purpose.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently expressed concern over the rise in heart attack deaths in Hassan. He suggested these might be linked to the COVID-19 vaccine. The Union Health Ministry has now strongly denied this claim. It said that two major studies by ICMR and… pic.twitter.com/juEs31SNP0
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The reporters drew the CM's attention to an earlier statement of his cabinet colleague and Food and Civil Supplies minister KH Muniyappa who admitted that the treated water through the KC Valley and HN Valley projects reaching the parched districts of Kolar and Chikkaballapura lakes needed tertiary treatment.
What is tertiary treatment of waste water?
Tertiary treatment of waste water is an advanced process to remove impurities— nutrients, pathogens, and chemicals—after secondary treatment (biological process of removing dissolved it suspended organic matter) to produce high-quality effluent. HN valley water is currently undergoing only secondary treatment. Tertiary treatment makes water safe for human consumption
Siddaramaiah denied there was any opposition to the project by the farmers and stated that claimed that the project was meant only for groundwater recharging and not for drinking purposes.
Higher Education Minister Dr M.C. Sudhakar, who is also the district in-charge of Chikkaballapura, who rushed to defend the CM, said, the HN Valley was meant only to augment the groundwater levels. "The Centre has appreciated the project and wants to emulate it. The IISc is monitoring the water quality and we are periodically submitting water quality reports to the National Green Tribunal too. Any objection to the project is only political," said Sudhakar.
The district reporters highlighted that the drinking water borewells were in the lake beds and livestock drank from the lakes too and any contamination of the lakes due to inadequate treatment of water could prove to be a health hazard. They also informed that some villages had put up warning boards asking people not to use the lake water.
An embarrassed Muniyappa who was present at the press meet, claimed that the issue of tertiary treatment of the HN Valley had already been discussed with the chief minister and he had assured that he would take call after conducting a scientific study (on the water quality).
The CM also announced that the Yettinahole project would be completed within the next two years and at a total cost of Rs 23,251 crore and around 75 lakh population spread across nine districts including Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru Rural, Tumakuru and Hassan would get drinking water.
Interestingly, the state cabinet decided to rename Bengaluru Rural district as Bengaluru North (recently Ramanagara district was renamed as Bengaluru South district), and Bagepalli taluk as Bhagyanagar. The Bengaluru City University will be named after late Dr Manmohan Singh.
"Bagepalli is a Telugu name. The word 'palli' in Kannada means lizard. So we are changing it to Bhagyanagar," said the chief minister.
The cabinet also gave its nod for a cabinet subcommittee headed by law minister HK Patil to look into the Lokayukta report on illegal mining and submit a report within a month.
