Illegal brick kilns are on the rise at several places in Ganjam district due to inadequate control and restrictions imposed by the State Government.
Even businessmen from Andhra Pradesh choose Odisha for setting up of clay brick kilns by violating the provisions of law as a result of which agriculture lands are day by day becoming redundant and environment is getting polluted. The situation is becoming more and more complicated while the Government is silent over the issue, said High Court lawyer Biranchi Narayan Mahapatra.
Due to the restrictions imposed by Andhra Pradesh Government against operation of clay brick kilns, businessmen from Andhra prefer Odisha to run their business by showing various type of temptation to innocent farmers while acquiring their agricultural lands for operating the kilns.
Sources said brick kilns are coming up mostly at Chikiti, Kukudakhandi, Rangailunda, Chhatrapur, Patrapur, Hinjilicut, Aska, Bhanjanagar, Buguda, Seragada, Dharakota, Sorada, Kodala, Belaguntha, Khallikote, Ganjam, Rambha, Polosara and Purushottampur blocks in Ganjam district.
The brick kiln owners illegally lift sand every day from the seashore and riverbeds and transport it to the brick kilns set up at Tamana, Jugudi, Panchama, Sasan Padar, Mahisanpur, Bikrampur, Kharida, Madhapur, Birapur villages. These kilns were established in prime agriculture lands by openly violating all the statutory norms and conditions of the district administration.
“Though use of sea sand for brick making is illegal, it is unnoticed by the district administration and even the local administrative officials are behaving like silent spectators,” alleged the locals.
The matter reached to the National Green Tribunal when a social activist Bishnu Prasad Misro filed a petition in this regard. Accepting the petition, the tribunal has directed the Chief Secretary of the State and Member Secretary of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) to submit action taken report (ATR) with reference to the environmental pollution issue and other factors raised by the applicant in this application including the list of all the illegal brick field owners operating their business in Ganjam illegally without taking consent from the OSPCB.
The tribunal was also given liberty to the applicant to file injunction petition to restraining the illegal operation of the brick fields in a separate application before next date of hearing. As per direction of the Tribunal, the applicant had filed a separate application. Original application along with miscellaneous application was put up for hearing on May 27 before the division bench of the Tribunal. When counsel of the OSCPCB sought adjournment for three months, the tribunal allowed the board the time.
The tribunal would hear the case on July 15, said applicant’s lawyer Biranchi Narayan Mohapatra.