|
The Telangana Pollution Control Board on the directions of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued shutdown notices to 3 pharma firms of the 9 polluting industries identified earlier. The State PCB had already issued closure notices to 9 pharmaceutical firms operating at special economic zone (SEZ) in Polepally village of Jadcherla mandal in Mahbubnagar district some time back.
However, the authorities have not yet revealed the names of the 3 firms that were issued shutdown notices.
After issuing the shutdown notices, the district administration on the direction of NGT has also pressed in a probe panel. A committee was formed by Ronald Rose, district collector of Mahbubnagar headed by a revenue divisional officer to look into the extent of industrial pollution in the pharma SEZ. The probe panel comprising of officials from the agriculture, revenue, pollution control board, Telangana State industrial infrastructure Corporation and ground water departments have started collecting the land, water and air samples in the surrounding areas of the SEZ and sent them to further analysis to study the impact of pollutants in the surrounding areas of the SEZ.
At present, the entire Polepally SEZ is spread over 900 acres of which the pharma companies are concentrated in about 250 acres of land. The people of Polepally and surrounding areas have been complaining of water, land and air pollution in the SEZ, which is impacting their livelihood and health. The residents of the local areas have alleged that the pharma companies like Aurobindo, Hetero, and Shilpa etc are releasing their effluents into the drain water and into deep pits, because of which the surrounding areas are getting polluted a lot.
Even earlier the environmental activists who visited the SEZ had submitted proof of pollution to the PCB, in the form of results of soil and water tests. And yet, little was done as a follow up action.
However, this time with the directions of NGT, the district administration has taken it seriously and constituted a committee who themselves have visited the SEZ and collected samples of soil and water from the locations and sent it for testing. Based on the test report, the district administration is likely take further action against some more pharma companies in the SEZ.
At present, the ground water in the areas of Mudirerddypally, Rayapally, Gundlagadda and Polepally is said to have got polluted due to release of hazardous chemicals into the ground through deep pits. “We have been fighting for more than 9 years against these polluting industries. It is only after the NGT intervened the officials and the PCB authorities have moved to take action against these firms,” said Kosgi Venkataiah, environmental activists.
|