Pollution Board withdraws closure notice

GUWAHATI, February 21: The Pollution Control Board, Assam (PCBA), has made the Cachar Paper Mill of the Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) at Panchgram to make an assurance through a court affidavit to abide by the pollution control norms by May 2 next and to deposit a security amount of Rs 5 lakh on the issue. Following this, the closure notice served on the Paper Mill has been withdrawn temporarily. Disclosing this, at a press conference here today, PCBA chairman Lakhsminandan Bora and its member secretary Mohini Sarma said that similar steps are also initiated against the Digboi Refinery and Guwahati Refinery, while phase-wise actions are also planned against the Nagaon Paper Mill of the HPC at Jagiroad. Meanwhile, the Goenka Wollen Mills at Azara is also facing PCBA actions in case the Mill authorities fail to comply with the pollution control norms by March next, they said. The Panchagram Paper Mill invited the wrath of the PCBA when the Mill authorities failed to comply with the conditions laid by the PCBA following the Central Government and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) directives to the PCBA to take stringent measures against the Mill for its discharging hazardous wastes into the Barak and the Kushiara rivers. The Central Government and the CPCB were irked when the issue of the Mill discharging hazardous wastes to the river systems was raised by the Bangladeshi representatives in the meetings of the Indo-Bangla Joint Action Committee in 1999 and 2000, Bora and Sarma said. In case of the Digboi Refinery, the CPCB published a problem area document, wherein the Refinery had been included as a polluting industry. The document suggested 23 short-term and long-term actions to the Refinery and the PCBA way back in 1994. The Refinery has been violating pollution control norms in matters of effluent treatment and releasing hazardous wastes and chemicals to the Missionpara Nullah at Digboi. This resulted in the Lakhipathar Reserve Forest fire in October last year compelling the PCBA to finally serve the closure notice on the Refinery on February 12 and it remained closed since February 13. Conditions of an affidavit and a security deposit of Rs to 50 lakh were also slapped on it. But, following a request from the Refinery authorities for waiving the conditions, yesterday, the Board postponed the act of giving effect to the closure notice today for a period of ten days, said Bora and Sarma, adding, "This was done considering the greater interest of the public". The Guwahati Refinery violated the polluting control norms in matters of effluents 12 times since September, 1999. The reply of the Refinery authorities to the show-cause notice served by the PCBA on November 30, 2000, was also not satisfactory though a redeeming feature is that the Refinery authorities have submitted a scheme to meet the effluent standards. Though no closure notice was served on the Refinery, it has been asked to submit a court affidavit and a security deposit of Rs 5 lakh, and though phase-wise actions are being planned against the HPC's Nagaon Paper Mill, actions have been deferred because of the Mill's completing 50 per cent of the physical works like construction of drains and also because of the National Human Rights Commission's (NHRC) taking up the issue of the Paper Mill.