Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Commission for Safai Karmacharis has directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to create a cell to monitor sewage treatment plants (STPs) under its jurisdiction. The cell is expected to have on board other civic agencies as well.
Commission chairman M.R. Venkatesha said on Saturday the commission had also asked the BBMP to ensure that all the STPs were registered under the civic body.
As many as seven persons have succumbed to the banned practice of manual scavenging in the city so far this year.
Venkatesha said there was a lack of clarity over which agency has to monitor private STPs — the BBMP, which approves building sanctions, or Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which insists on apartments with more than 50 units to have STPs, or the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).
The commission has noted that while the KSPCB has said there are 590 STPs registered in the city, activists have said there are close to 4,800. Venkatesha said civic agencies had been asked to conduct a survey of the STPs and submit a report within a fortnight.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said the civic body would coordinate with other agencies to devise a method to monitor the STPs.
