No prior clearance sought for Una industrial area: NGT

Kullu: No prior environment clearance was taken by the Himachal Pradesh govt before setting up the industrial area in Pandoga village under Haroli tehsil of Una district, read a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order.
While directing the principal secretary, industry, Himachal Pradesh, to file a reply within four weeks on the remedial measures, the court of Justice Sudhir Agarwal in a recent order observed that polluting industries could not have been allowed to be set up without environmental clearance and that the matter required investigation and remedial action.

“Prior environment clearance was not obtained for the establishment of industrial areas and so category A and B industries could not have been allowed to be established in the Pandoga industrial area. But the same have been allowed wrongly and this matter requires investigation and remedial action,” stated the NGT order.
Category A features heavily polluting industries; and category B industrial units also require environment clearance beforehand.
As per the order, three industrial units under category A and B — Hindustan Pectin, Ian Macleod and Ambaji Enterprises — were allowed to be established in breach of the environmental laws.
The Himachal govt had not taken a prior environment clearance on the ground that the area for developing the industrial area in Pandoga village was less than 500 hectares and there was no proposal for setting up heavily polluting industries. However, later the same were allowed, read the NGT order.
In the Pandoga industrial area, which was developed in 2016, 18 industries are in operation while seven are at construction stage.
A letter petition was filed earlier this year by Manoj Kumar Kaushal, an ex-Army man and a local resident, complaining that the setting up of the industrial area in Pandoga has caused huge environmental destruction in the area.
Kaushal stated in his petition that hills had been damaged, a large number of trees were cut and even the chemical industry was allowed in a green area.
For the project, 60 hectares of forest land was approved to be diverted by the ministry of environment and forest in 2015 and later a total of 9,930 trees in the area were cut.
There was a proposal to set up a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) of 5-MLD capacity in the industrial area, but the state industry department did not construct it due to “lack of requisite quantity of effluent discharge”.
In its reply, principal secretary, industries department, R D Nazeem informed the tribunal recently that setting up of the CETP would be “a sheer wastage of money” as there were only two units in the industrial area that discharge liquid effluents.
Acting on the petition, the NGT had directed the Himachal chief secretary; principal secretary, industries; deputy commissioner, Una; divisional forest officer, Una; and member secretary, Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board (HPPCB), to submit their replies on the claims made in the petition.
The tribunal had also directed the principal secretary and principal chief conservator of forests to appear in person before it. However, when both the officers failed to comply with the orders, the NGT, during the last hearing on Sept 6, imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on them.
The NGT has fixed Dec 12 as the next date of hearing in the case.