After the Vadodara Municipal Corporation asked the Gujarat Pollution Control Board to furnish details about the industries which discharge pollutants in the Vishwamitri river, the GPCB has surprisingly said that not a single industrial unit polluted the river by discharging chemical waste into it.

Senior officials at VMC told Newsline that the intention behind its seeking information from the GPCB was to check the level of pollution in the river. The Board's reply has recently been received, they said, but it states that not a single industrial unit or industry polluted the river.

The activists on the other hand were shocked to know that GPCB could not find something which was so obvious and that anybody could see that river water has turned coloured.

"GPCB officials will never admit the fact that the industries release pollutants into the river. In fact it is the VMC which officially allows the industries to release the pollutants into the river," said environment activist Rohit Prajapati.

He said the limits set by VMC for industries on discharge of chemical wastes were faulty. "The industries will always say that they follow the rules laid by VMC while discharging their waste at the waste disposal plant. It is something like setting a bottom line for accepting bribes which itself is illegal," said Prajapati.

VMC Deputy Municipal Commissioner C M Makwana, on the other hand, said that the GPCB has simply conveyed that no chemical waste was discharged in the river. "However, they have assured us that whenever some irregularity will be pointed out they would be taking necessary action against the defaulters," he said.

The entire concept of Vishwamitri clean up project takes a backseat as the fact of it being polluted is ignored.

"If the authorities say that not a single unit is discharging chemical waste in the river, we would like to ask them why not even a single fish is found in the river water," said Prajapati.