Haridwar District Magistrate Deepak Rawat issued a show cause notice to the regional officer of Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB), asking him to explain why he had not conducted unannounced inspection of the factories operating in the region sans permission a day after he visited a factory in SIIDCUl from which black smoke was found billowing out. While the RO said that 56 companies in the region did not have the official consent to operate as per pollution control norms the owners of such factories said that they had all the related documents in support of their claim that they have the official nod from the board to operate. The factory owners, further, claimed that they had applied for annual renewal following which inspection was recently done and the same was awaited.
At around 1.30 am on Wednesday, DM inspected Rockman Industries and Century Metals where scrap of the old vehicles is burnt. He inspected the factories and then asked the RO, UEPPCB, about whether official permission had been given to the factories to operate. “I was informed that 56 companies in SIIDCUl were not having the required permission to operate. Hence the show cause notice to RO,” said Rawat. He, further, said that all the industries had been asked to fully comply with the pollution control norms hardly a week ago. “However, these factories are violating the norms with impunity and are releasing pollutants in the air,” he added.
However, the head of Rockman Industries A K Saini said, “DM did not ask for any document while he was on the site. Otherwise we could have shown the same to him. We have the permission for operation. We recently applied for online annual renewal for which the site inspection was done on July 12. Also we use the natural gas which is not poisonous and the chimney height is maintained as per the pollution control norms.”
Those running Century Mills claimed the same. They said that they have in their possession the NOC from the board. The plant head, Vijay Kumar said, “We submitted the renewal fees in February and things are being delayed because of the board. We have year to year consent to operate and this year the file is under process at UEPPCB.”