Pollution board seals three factories in Yamunanagar district
Tribune News Service
Yamunanagar, August 25
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has closed operations of three industrial units in Yamunanagar district.
These units — Vikrant Paints at Patashgarh village, Kandhela Construction Company at Patashgarh village and M/S RS Enterprises at Jagadhri — were allegedly found running illegally without obtaining consent to establish (CTE) and consent to operate (CTO) from the HSPCB.
Virender Punia, Regional Officer, HSPCB, Yamunanagar, had formed a team headed by Abhijeet Singh Tanwar, Assistant Environmental Engineer (AEE).
The team visited these three units a few months ago and reportedly found several violations by the unit owners under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control) Act, 1981.
The team found that Vikrant Paints (paints and varnishes-mixing and blending unit) didn’t obtain CTE and CTO from the HSPCB and this unit was being operated in violation of Sections 25/26 of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Section 21/22 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
When the team visited Kandhela Construction Company (a biomass pellets and briquettes manufacturing unit) in Patashgarh village, it found that the unit was operating without the CTE and the CTO. Besides, the unit had allegedly not made any arrangement to control the foul smell emanating from its raw material.
The HSPCB team also visited RS Enterprises (stainless steel manufacturing unit) in Jagadhri. This unit was also found operating without obtaining the necessary permissions. As per the report of the team, the unit had not provided adequate air pollution control devices on furnaces, which released air emissions into the open environment without any treatment and had also not provided any stack and sampling facility.
“Show-cause notices for closure were issued to Vikrant Paints, Kandhela Construction Company and RS Enterprises, but these units failed to submit the reply of the closure notices,” said AEE Abhijeet Singh.
Virender Punia, RO of the HSPCB, Yamunanagar said that now on the order passed by the Chairman of the HSPCB, P Raghavendra Rao, the operations of the three units were closed by sealing their plants and machinery on Saturday.
He added that the Chairman of the HSPCB had also issued directions to the Executive Engineer of UHBVN, operation division, Yamunanagar, to disconnect the electric supply of those units.
