PPCB has refused to let Zira distillery operate: Punjab to HC

CHANDIGARH: Additional chief secretary (home) Anurag Verma on Tuesday submitted in the Punjab and Haryana high court that Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had refused to let Malbros International operate its liquor factory in Zira.
The officer also submitted that the protesters believed the factory to be polluting their groundwater and soil, and after the PPCB had taken a decision, any party that felt aggrieved was free to take legal remedies.
Referring to the proceedings of a meeting that the chief minister Bhagwant Mann had chaired on February 14, the ACS (home) submitted that once the PPCB had refused permission, Zira was no longer a law-and-order issue, although police remained deployed for caution.
Verma made these submissions to comply with the high court's orders of December 23, which required the state to file an affidavit about the time it needed for ending the stalemate and bringing the situation in conformity with the high court's verdict.
The state was also supposed to specify if it had the capacity to control the protest or industrial activity to that level. Verma referred to the February 14 meeting that the chief secretary, director general of police, financial commissioner (excise and taxation), PPCB chairperson, ADGP (law and order), DIG Ferozepur range, district magistrate, and Ferozepur senior superintendent of police had attended.
In that meeting, the PPCB chairperson had made it public that by an order dated February 3, it had refused to give operating consent to the company based at Zira's Mansoorwal village in Ferozepur district. The ACS (home) also placed on record the minutes of that meeting. The counsel for the state submitted that two committees had filed their reports, while the remaining two were yet to do that. Their job was to check if the liquor factory was a source of pollution.