Pollution by universities cannot be tolerated

BANGALORE: Environmentalist and High Court Lok Adalat member A N Yellappa Reddy warned  the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to implement the norms and protect the environment. He was speaking at the one-day training programme for universities on ‘Environmental Management System’ on Friday.“The law will not let you free. Either you abide by the law or be ready to face the consequences at Lok Adalat,” he said and indicated the KSPCB to be more proactive in monitoring the university campuses and strictly make them adhere to environmental acts.“Universities should become a role model. It is unpalatable that somebody should ask the universities to be more aware and free their campus from any pollution,” Yellappa said. “Environmental pollution by universities cannot be tolerated. When we ask hospitals to shut down if they are found violating the pollution norms, it will not be difficult to ask the universities to close  down,” he warned.Calling upon the universities to involve  students to suggest solutions to protect environment, he bemoaned on the attitude of requesting money and technology from foreign countries.Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor N Prabhu Dev requested KSPCB chairman A S Sadashivaiah to give a copy of all the enactments for the better implementation of those and opined such workshops were a must for universities to interact with experts. C Sreenivasan, Indian Green Service, Vellore, A R Shivakumar, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, gave technical sessions on case studies on a Municipal Corporation at Tamil Nadu and Rainwater Harvesting.