Three stone crushers in Nalagarh issued notices for norm violation

Officials of the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) have issued notices to three stone crushers operating in the Nalagarh area for violating various norms. They have been directed to adhere to environmental norms within two weeks or face strict actions like the closure of their operations, besides snapping of their power connections. A cost of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15 lakh could also be levied on them for polluting the environment.

The SPCB officials inspected the stone crushers located at Nava Gram, Mahadev and Baglehar villages and detected various shortcomings that were contributing to air and water pollution. Their key pollution control devices, which were required to contain air pollution, were found damaged and had not been replaced in the violation of the norms. Since the stone crushers are usually considered polluting units, the defunct devices considerably add to air and water pollution in their vicinity.

“An inspection of the stone crushers revealed various violations. They were found discharging effluents from the sand washing section into the nearby Mahadev Khad. Though the installation of CCTV cameras at the stone crushers’ sites is mandatory, these were found to be non-functional. In another violation of norms, the air pollution mitigation devices were found non-functional in one stone crusher,” said Assistant Environment Engineer Pawan Chauhan.

These inadequacies violated the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, besides the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and made the units liable for environmental compensation, as per the norms of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), based on the ‘polluter pays principle’.