The National Green Tribunal has ordered closure of all steel foundries operating in the Jasodharpur Industrial Area in Kotdwar without a consent from the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board. The Centre for Science and Environment has welcomed this decision while blaming the inaction by UEPPCB and district administration for the current state of affairs.
A statement issued by CSE states that the NGT order has also asked the UEPPCB to file a status report before the next hearing scheduled in March. The order comes in a case filed by a resident of Kotdwar in Uttarakhand against the Jasodharpur Industrial Area (JIA).
In 2012, acting on a request from the UEPPCB, CSE had conducted an extensive environmental assessment of the area and advised the Board to regularise the foundries operating without a consent. CSE had presented an action plan to tackle the issue of air and solid waste pollution from these foundries and had also held meetings with UEPPCB and industry representatives as a follow-up apart from writing many letters to UEPPCB to take the matter forward.
“We are happy that finally the law is taking its course. If the UEPPCB and district administration would have paid heed to the CSE report, things did not need to go to the court,” said CSE deputy director general Chandra Bhushan. “The pollution control board has the authority to stop operations of any plant that does not meet the norms and does not have the mandatory consent. The state board failed to exercise its authority,” he added.
The JIA is a cluster of about 20 steel-making factories using induction furnaces. local communities have been protesting against the air and land pollution in the area due to JIA for about four years now. The community, in its protest in December 2011, had demanded that the environmental assessment of the area be carried out by CSE.