Orissa stone crushers thwart pollution laws

Take legal cover to prevent closure of units.

Pollution control steps in Orissa seems to be stymied, if the saga of the 1,300-odd stone crushing units, considered the biggest polluters in the state, are to be taken into account.

Not conforming to pollution control guidelines, over 400 such units have been issued closure notices by the Orissa government and the state pollution control board (OPCB) in a span of ten years.

But the instructions have merely remained on papers and not implemented, as the units spread out in the Khurdah and Jajpur areas continue to function under the noses of the OPCB and the state authorities.

They have managed the legal shield, the alleged biggest stumbling block in the way of proper implementation of pollution controls norms, according to senior OPCB officials.

Says an official, "Most of the stone crushing units have flagrantly violated pollution control rules and still continue to operate without a break, despite the OPCB and state government issuing orders for their closure. They have the legal support."

At the same time, over 200 cases are pending in the courts over the past 10 years, as the polluting units have managed to obtain stay on closure proceedings. The polluting units have been accused of violating the state Air Prevention and Control Pollution ( PCP) Act of 1981 and Environment Protection (EP) Act of 1986.

Orissa was declared an Air Pollution Control Area on July 18, 2002. But that also has turned out to be a mere notification as the stone crushing units continue to function, violating the regulations laid down in the Air Prevention Control Pollution ( PCP) Act of 1981.

As per the regulation, stone crushing units can only be set up one kilometre away from any living habitation, mostly villages and 500 metres from any national or state highway.

The scene in reality, however, is different as stone crushing units have mushroomed within 500 metres on both sides of National Highway 5 and 203, bisecting the Temple City of Bhubaneswar from both sides and finding ways into Khurdah.

Similar is the scene in the Jajpur-Chandikul area, where such polluting units are set up within a distance of one kilometre of each village. The habitants of these villages are mostly suffering from dust allergies and dust-related diseases because of the stone crushing units.

High ejection of respirable particulate matter (RPM) at 150 mgm/nmq and suspended particulate matter (SPM) at 600 mgm/nmq is polluting vast stretches of habitation, with virtually no way to stop them.

The stipulated level, conforming to the air pollution control norms, is much low ranging between 50 to 100 mgm/nmq.

The argument advanced by some units is that they were set up much before Orissa was declared an Air Pollution Control Area in 2002 and naturally can bypass instructions given on pollution norms.

Says an owner of a stone crushing unit, who did not wish to be named as the future of his unit remains sub-judice, "When I set up the unit, there were no pollution strictures of the present nature. Presently, I do not have the money to set up a pollution control device. With the PCB issuing closure notices, I had no other option but knocking the legal doors and obtain a stay".

Meanwhile, with the role of OPCB being minimised by the day, questions have started cropping up on the internal functioning of the organisation.

Officials have prepared dissenting notes within the organisation which points out that OPCB is 'standing like a sphinx in between cantankerous litigants and cumbersome legal procedures", the ultimate sufferer being the individual, who are slowly being poisoned by the pollution caused by the defaulting units and its greedy owners.