Pollution board orders disconnection of power to Nalagarh factory

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 13

Displaying abject lack of concern for the environment, officials of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Baddi, today ordered disconnection of the power supply of an industrial unit, Synergy Telecommunication, at Manjholli village in Nalagarh for burning hazardous waste openly. Not caring two hoots for the air pollution that such an act would generate, the company was found habitually indulging in such mischief as per its record.

An inspection was conducted by board officials on February 11 after receipt of complaints from locals. They found that the unit had burnt its hazardous waste generated in the plant instead of disposing it in the transport storage disposal facility of hazardous waste. This led to generation of colossal amount of toxic smoke in the precincts.

“The unit has not provided any safe storage for the hazardous and non-hazardous waste. The unit was found habitually indulging in this mischief as such an activity has been performed in the previous year too. Not only that in February 2023, another similar complaint of burning of processed waste within the plant premises had been received by the board,” observed the officials.

Fed up with the nonchalant attitude of the company, the gram panchayat of Manjholi passed a resolution to take strict action against the unit on February 12 as despite taking up the issue with the company staff, they had failed to mend their ways.

Praveen Gupta, Chief Engineer, SPCB, Baddi, said in view of the observations of habitual non-compliance of board directions, action under Section 33-A of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Section 31-A of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, for power disconnection has been ordered today.

Notably, a resident Kuldeep Kumar of Manjholi panchayat had lodged a complaint on the CM’s helpline on February 21, 2023, where he had alleged that since the last one year, the company had been burning waste, which led to a lot of smoke in the area.