Sun Pharma fined Rs 2 cr for discharging effluent in open in Nawanshahr

Tribune News Service

Ropar, October 30

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on Sun Pharmaceutical Limited for discharging effluent in an open area at its manufacturing plant spread over 80 acres of land at nearby Taunsa village in Nawanshahr district. The company has also been asked to reduce its manufacturing capacity to half.

Several teams of PPCB officials had visited the plant on October 1 and 2 and took samples of the effluent stored in several ponds, created in an open area of around one acre, after a local resident lodged a complaint. The company produces active pharmaceutical ingredients at this unit.

According to PPCB officials, a local had lodged complaint that the untreated effluent was being stored in ponds in an open area and being sandy soil in the area, this effluent was seeping down leading to pollution of underground water. It was also alleged that the people in the area were suffering from various diseases, including cancer, as the polluted water after mixing with underground water was reaching the homes and fields of the local residents.

The officials confirmed that the effluent was being discharged in the ponds bypassing the effluent treatment plant (ETP). And there is every possibility that mixing of effluent with underground water was playing havoc with people’s health in the area, said a PPCB team official, which took the samples from the company plant.

PPCB Member Secretary Krunesh Garg said the capacity of the ETP installed at the factory of Sun Pharma at Taunsa was not enough to handle the quantity of effluent being generated and a large amount of it was being dumped in open.

While the directions have been issued to the company to reduce its manufacturing capacity to 50 per cent, the management has also been asked to deposit Rs 2 crore as environment compensation, he added.

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