10 illegal denim-dyeing units found shut during raid

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Sonepat, January 1

The special surveillance task force was in for a surprise during a raid as they found 10 denim-dyeing units operating illegally at the Auchandi border already shut. The unit owners had already fled after vacating the premises.

Notably, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) had served the closure notice to these units in November last year for violating the pollution norms and disposing chemical effluents directly into drains.

In his complaint to the HSPCB in September last year, Varun Gulati, a Delhi-based environmentalist, said scores of industrial units at the Auchandi border (Delhi-Haryana border) and Ferozepur Bangar village of Sonepat district were openly violating the pollution norms.

CRACKDOWN CONTINUES

Ten more units were found near Jatti Kalan and Jatti Khurd village area. Of these, four were shut already and their owners have fled after vacating the premises. Also, closure notice has been served to six other units too. —Kamaljeet Singh, Regional officer, HSPCB, Sonepat

He alleged that all these illegal dyeing units were running for several years without any consent to operate and were the main source of water pollution.

Following the complaint, a team of the HSPCB raided the areas and found 10 denim-dyeing units operational without obtaining an NOC from the authorities concerned or consent to operate (CTO) and consent to establishment (CTE).

The HSPCB had then served closure notices to all these units in November last year, sources said.

Meanwhile, Kamaljeet Singh, Regional Officer, HSPCB, Sonepat, said a team of the state surveillance task force, comprising a tehsildar, a representative of the Chief Judicial Magistrate and the police, raided the Auchandi border area to check these illegal units but all 10 of them were found shut.

All units were operating from rented accommodations and the owners vacated and fled after the HSPCB closure notices in November last year, he added.