Departments fail to act against illegal bleaching units in Panipat

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, October 4

The Revenue Department, District Town Planning Department and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam have failed to initiate action against the illegal bleaching units operational in the textile city despite four reminders each given by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB).

Now, S Narayanan, HSPCB member secretary, has raised the issue with the DC and asked him to initiate action against the bleaching units.

It was revealed in an RTI query that all bleaching units in the district were unregistered. As many as 150 bleaching units were scattered in the agricultural fields here.

The district administration swung into action and constituted a panel comprising Regional Officer (RO), HSPCB; DTP enforcement; revenue department and SDO, UHBVN to initiate action against the illegal bleaching units in June. The UHBVN has to disconnect the electricity connection, DTP has to dismantle the illegal structures and the revenue department has to provide the land revenue record.

The HSPCB had identified 137 bleaching units operating illegally during a special drive here of which 53 were resealed by the Board, while 23 were found to be new and 61 were dismantled.

As per sources, most of these sealed units have started operating again.

Kamaljeet Singh, RO, HSPCB, said: “We have served four reminders to the Revenue Department to provide land revenue record, DTP enforcement to dismantle the illegal structure and to the UHBVN to disconnect electricity connections of these illegal bleaching units, which have been sealed.”

He said they had informed the headquarters and written a letter to the Chairman about the departments concerned. “We visited various sites today and sealed four illegal bleaching units,” he said.

Units operating from fields

• An RTI query revealed that 150 unregistered bleaching units were scattered in agricultural fields
• The pollution control board had identified 137 illegal bleaching units during a special drive; 53 of them were resealed
• Sources say most of the sealed units have started operating again after breaking the seals
• The units are not only polluting land, but also causing revenue loss to the state government, sources say

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