Mix 25% fly ash in bricks or shut down, admin tells brick kiln owners

Meerut: District administration has directed all clay brick kiln owners to mix 25% fly ash in brick manufacturing and also erect a six-foot-tall tin sheet fence around the kiln facility. They have been warned that if the steps are not taken, the facilities will be shut down.
Additional district magistrate (finance) Subhash Chand Prajapati said, “We have given strict instructions to all brick kiln manufacturers to either follow rules or shut down their establishment.”
Prajapati said the steps were being taken in accordance with the directions of Allahabad high court.“The direction is in connection with a HC order on a PIL filed way back in 2014. The HC eventually ordered on January 23, 2020 that unless the above mentioned provisions are not fulfilled, no kiln should be allowed to manufacture bricks.”
Brick kiln owners, on the other hand, claimed that the group which filed the PIL believes in blackmailing tactics and misled the court to obtain orders in its favour.
CP Singh, president of the district brick kiln association, told TOI, “We will challenge the order in the HC because of the half-baked information provided by the petitioners. First of all, fly ash is made available by the thermal power plants. And these plants had already made it clear way back in 2010 that they do not have fly ash available in adequate quantity for brick kilns, which means the HC order in the current status amounts to sounding death knell for brick kiln industry.”
Environmental activist and lawyer Gaurav Bansal has rejected the claims of the brick kiln industry. “There is no dearth of fly ash in and around these thermal power plants but the problem is that already established clay brick kilns are not in the vicinity of these plants, so the transportation cost of fly ash from plant to kiln is quite high. On the contrary, clay is easily available. So the brick manufactures shy away from using fly ash.”
Fly ash is a by-product of coal after it is burnt at thermal power plants. There has been quite a push to promote its usage in brick manufacturing as thermal plants dump this ash on empty land or ponds, leading to depletion in top soil and raising pollution levels in the atmosphere. But inconsistent supply of this ash to brick kilns is matter of concern.