Bhatkal: Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Harshal Narayan Rao Boyer on Saturday evening inspected the sewage-hit Sarabi river and the Ghausia Street pumping station in Bhatkal, pulling up municipal officials over prolonged maintenance failures and the continuous discharge of wastewater into the river.
The inspection followed a complaint by the local social organisation Majlis-e-Islah-wa-Tanzeem, Bhatkal. After attending the Praja Seva programme at Belke earlier in the day, the Deputy Commissioner visited the pumping station at around 6 pm and expressed serious concern over the deteriorating condition of the river, which has virtually turned into a sewage drain.
He sought an explanation from officials of the Karwar Water Board and the Bhatkal City Municipal Council regarding the cause of the problem. When municipal officials held the Karwar Water Board responsible for the continuous discharge of sewage, the Board's Executive Engineer, Shivaram Naik, clarified that sewage was entering the river due to leakage in the wet well and that repairing the leak was the responsibility of the Bhatkal City Municipal Council.
The explanation prompted the Deputy Commissioner to pull up the municipal council's Assistant Executive Engineer and other officials, questioning their handling of the issue.
Local residents also brought to his notice that the generator at the pumping station had remained non-functional for the past three months and that the pumping machinery frequently broke down. Taking serious note of the complaints, Boyer reprimanded the municipal officials and questioned what they were being paid for if basic maintenance work was not being carried out.
He also instructed Zaheer Abbas, Municipal Project Director from Karwar, to take necessary steps to rectify the technical faults and ensure the proper functioning of the Ghausia Street pumping station.
The Deputy Commissioner further remarked that officials responsible for negligence would be questioned at their offices rather than in front of the public.
Boyer assured local residents that necessary measures would be taken to resolve the long-pending sewage problem and urged them to remain patient.