Senior leader and local BJP legislator Saryu Roy on Tuesday inspected Domuhani — the meeting point of river Subernarekha and Kharkai— and collected water samples from both the rivers following complaints of discharge of effluents by industries based at Adityapur.

The newly-elected MlA inspected the rivers and later called up the Chairman of Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board ( JSPCB) AK Mishra over phone in Ranchi and asked him to initiate a probe so that those industries releasing the effluents could be identified and that action could be taken against them.

“Due to the effluent discharge the colour of the water of river Kharkai has turned white. The situation is grave. The water has become dirty for use. I have asked the chairman of the State pollution control board to inquire into the matter,” said Roy.

He told newsmen here that apart from large scale flow of industrial and domestic waste in the river, encroachment of the bank area was also a matter of grave concern.  ‘We had launched a campaign to save this historic river from an untimely death and now I want to ensure fruitful results,” he noted.

Roy himself collected the samples of water from river Subernarekha and Kharkai and sent it to the Ranchi-based environmental lab of Yugantar Bharti, an NGO that works on environment related issues. Simultaneously, Roy also formed a five-member committee of local residents to find out the source of the effluents. The committee is headed by Mukul Mishra, a local resident of Sonari.

Regional officer of Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, RN Choudhary said that a team led by him will visit the spot on Wednesday.  He said that the white effluent discharge was due to the leakage of fly ash from power plant at Seraikela.

Another social activist said rivers are like economic, social and cultural spine of the country. We must keep them alive by foiling the attempts of large scale encroachment and flow of pollutants in to them.