Kanpur: A two-member special team inspected the common effluent treatment plant ( CETP ), pumping stations and other infrastructure meant for the treatment of tannery discharge in the city on Wednesday and observed that CCTV cameras were out of order at some of the facilities.The team, led by chief environmental officer T U Khan and project director of Amrit Yojna Mayank Tiwari, made random inspections on the directions of the state government.The team asked the additional district magistrate (city) and officials of Jal Nigam to get the defunct cameras installed at pumping stations and CETP repaired at the earliest and connect them with the website of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board so that monitoring could be performed from Lucknow.The team first inspected Chabilepurwa pumping station, thereafter visited the Sheetala Bazar station where it measured the sewage and recorded the data.At Wazidpur pumping station, the team inspected ongoing construction work. Khan and his team members thereafter reached Budhia ghat pumping station and measured the flow of sewage which was observed as five to seven MLD.Meanwhile, some tannery owners also reached the spot and lodged a complaint that when tanneries were closed, how the sewage could reach there. They claimed that whenever pumping station number 4 gets more sewage, the operators open the sluice valve and pass the sewage to pumping station number 3. As a result, the pumping station 3 witnesses overflowing of sewage in its channels.Taking cognizance, Khan asked the officials to seal the sluice valve on the spot.In the last, he visited the CETP and asked the operators to apprise him of the quantity of the sewage.Khan said he and project director Mayank had been sent by the state government with a direction to record observation on six points, including the capacity of pumping stations and capacity on which they were being operated. Whether the units had generator as back up or not and condition of release gates of pumping stations 2 and 4.The committee would submit its report before the state government on Friday.Officials said Samajwadi Party MLA Amitabh Bajpai had recently raised the issue of closure of tanneries in the state assembly. He had claimed that tannery owners were suffering the outcome of errors of Jal Nigam and the state government.It was quite surprising that tanneries were closed despite having CETP. He also claimed that the state government had recently released Rs 17.88 crore for the renovation of CETP but the money was misused.

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