NEW DELHI, Nov 7: The government is planning to enforce Environment Protection Act against polluting hotels in the country as has been done in the case of industries.

It has already decided to chalk out a strategy under which the state pollution control boards will be instructed to check the flow of untreated hotel sewage into rivers, lakes and open nallahs.

The ministry of Environment and Forest has already been asked to tighten the pollution control norms in case of hotels discharging effluents and dumping garbage in their backyards.

As a first step, The government has decided to target hotels of Udaipur which attract a large number of domestic and international tourists because of their idyllic setting in and around lakes.

"The minister for environment and forest, Saifuddin Soz has also written to the Rajasthan Chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on the deteriorating condition of Udaipur's seven exquisite lakes and ordered the chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board to see how the dying lakes could be resurrected," a senior official in the ministry said. The Planning Commission has been approached for a grant of Rs 35 crore for the purification of the seven lakes. Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board Dilip Biswas said in Udaipur, Lake Palace Hotel, government circuit house and other hotels are releasing untreated sewage into Pichola lake.

"From a distance the hotel setting is exquisite but once you get close, eutrofication is evident. The green colour of the lake is because of over fertilisation by waste water discharged," he said. "The heavy content of nitrogen and phosporous is killing lakes. The coliform content in the lakes is beyond the permitted levels," he said. The state pollution control board has recently issued notices to the polluting hotels and to the municipal corporation for not providing sewage treatment facilities and garbage dumps in the city. u The construction of two hotels has been stayed as they had not obtained environment clearance certificates, Biswas said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.