Taking a serious note of the pollution being caused by the blowing of ash from the dozen iron and steel factories in Giridih, which resulted in damage to the crops and health hazard in the areas, the Sub-divisional officer Vijaya Jadhav raided all Iron, Steel and Oil factories including the Shivam rolling mills, Santpuriya Oil private limited, langtababa steel and GD TMT, and have been issued showcase letters to their owners.
Jadhav said she had received multiple complaints against the authorities of the Iron and steel plants who were summoned to explain their failure in meeting the environmental norms. "They admitted technical fault and assured to resolve the same to prevent any further air pollution in the area," She said. However, as per the set procedure a showcase letters have been issued to its owners. She asked their owners to immediate start its ESP (Electro Static Precipitator) system of the factory. However, some factories somehow have been stated its ESP to control the air pollution.
The SDM further directed that the factories to compensate the farmers who had suffered losses due to the fly ash as would be assessed by the agriculture department. The Steel and Iron plants have also been directed to be assured with the administration as an assurance that in future no pollution shall be caused.
The plants were also directed to ensure to use good coal of ash content not more than 34 per cent to reduce the generation of fly ash and to utilize 100 per cent fly ash generated, in the manufacturing of iron and steel industries.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Oil, Iron and Steel plants promised to put up a mechanism in place which will ensure that in case of excess storage of fly ash in the silos, the plant shall automatically shut down. The authorities of the plant submitted an action plan to take all necessary steps so that no such incident takes place in future. Keeping in view the proposal, it was also ordered that the industry will improve their pollution control devices.