(From left) Minister Gautam Deb, river expert Kalyan Rudra and Jalpaiguri municipality chairperson Mohan Basu inspect the Karala on Thursday; (above) a pollution control board official tests the Karala water. Pictures by Biplab Basak

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 1: The pollution control board today warned that municipalities would face legal action if they failed to check the dumping of waste in rivers and other water bodies under their jurisdiction.

The warning came from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board chairperson, B.K. Dutta, who arrived here along with river expert Kalyan Rudra after thousands of fish had floated up dead on the Karala river on Monday.

The duo sat with north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb and officials of fisheries and irrigation departments and the Jalpaiguri Municipality at the circuit house to discuss the measures needed to be taken to clean up the Karala poisoned by pesticides.

The authorities decided at the meeting to pump in water from the Teesta into the Karala from tomorrow so that the poisoned water could be diluted.

“I appeal to all municipalities to stop dumping waste in rivers and other waterbodies. I will convene a meeting of all civic chiefs in Calcutta on December 9 to discuss the pollution of rivers. The municipalities will be told that they will have to stop the practise of dumping waste in rivers or face legal action,” said Dutta.

Sources in the board said a case could be started against a municipality under the Environment Protection Act for polluting rivers. If the charge is established and the guilty are fixed by the court, they can be slapped with a fine of Rs 1 lakh or imprisonment up to five years or both .

The board chief said the Alipurduar municipality had already been taken to the task for the pollution of the Kaljani river. Dutta said the board had received several complaints about the dumping of rubbish in the Kaljani.

“Although the civic body had been warned many times, there has been no effort on its part to clear the Kaljani of garbage. We sent the municipal authorities a notice three months ago, asking them to stop dumping waste in the river or we will take them to the high court green bench. As requested by the Alipurduar civic administration, we have given it five months to take up proper waste disposal methods so that the river pollution could be arrested,” said Dutta.

The pollution control board chairperson said prima facie evidence suggested that pesticide had caused the fish deaths in the Karala. Although the board had collected water from the Karala for tests, the result is yet to come.

Minister Deb said a drive would begin tomorrow to clean the Karala with water from the Teesta. “Water will be pumped in from the Teesta to flush toxicants out of its tributary Karala. The Karala will get a swill at two points near Jubilee Park and Rajbari Para in the town,” said Deb.

Fire brigade pumps will be used to bring in water from the Teesta that flows about half a kilometre from Jalpaiguri.

The member-secretary of the North Bengal Flood Control Commission, Dhiraj Dhar, said the bed of the Teesta was higher than that of the Karala at the confluence of the two rivers 7km downstream.

“So, water from the Karala will not flow into the Teesta during the purification drive. Still, we will be extremely careful when the river is cleaned up,” Dhar said.

With the outset of the winter, water level in the Thames of Jalpaiguri has come down.

At today’s meeting, the Congress chairperson of the Jalpaiguri municipality, Mohan Basu, said the pollution control board had not responded to a proposal sent by the civic body to clear the Karala of pollutants.

Dutta said he had not received any report from the civic body and requested the chairperson to bring the detailed report to the meeting in Calcutta on December 9.