To ensure proper functioning of ESPs
The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) on Friday served a notice to the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) authorities asking them to ensure that all pollution control machines work properly in the plant soon.
Acting on a complaint to this effect lodged by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Rourkela Regional Office of the OSPCB served the notice.
The AAP has alleged that the pollution in the steel city has increased and caused harm to the environment as the pollution control machines like Electro-Static Precipitators (ESPs) are not properly working in different units of the RSP.
OSPCB’s Regional Director Niranjan Mallick had visited the RSP on March 25 and found that the ESPs were not working. Mallick immediately served a notice in favour of ED (Works), RSP mentioning that the dusts being released from Sintering Plants 2 and 3 are causing air pollution and the sky is looking reddish in its effect.
The OSPCB served another notice on Friday as the RSP authorities did not implement its earlier direction. In the notice, it remarked that the gas being generated from the Blast Furnace-5 for many days is polluting the air. If the gas release continues, then it would be harmful for Rourkela and its adjacent areas. Hence, the ESPs installed in different points should be made functional, it observed.
