The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Supreme Court panel raps State pollution board

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Supreme Court panel raps State pollution board

By K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD. Nov. 28. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes (SCMC) that visited the State recently, made some damning observations against the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and the treatment facilities for handling hazardous industrial wastes.

The SCMC team headed by G. Tyagarajan, in its report, pulled up the APPCB for having no control over waste once it goes for "recycling." The team found it "interesting" that the maximum quantity of hazardous waste constituting 52 per cent was shown as "recycled," while 45.4 per cent had gone for final disposal and only 2.5 per cent as incinerable. It said one could conclude that "one does not really know where the bulk of the hazardous waste goes."

The team noted that the number of industries issued authorisation by APPCB had gone up from 1,286 in January this year to 1,532 now and the total quantity of hazardous waste generated rose from 1,45,000 tonnes per annum to 2,42,706 TPA now. The SCMC team comprised C. Alvares of the Goa Foundation, D. B. Boralkar of Maharashtra PCB, S. Devotta of NEERI, J. S. Yadav and P. N. Sharma of IICT.

During its visit to the Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility at Dundigal, the SCMC found "unusual" that the categorisation of the wastes for treatment, disposal or incineration was done on its own and not by the PCB. It also found that the TSDF had accumulated around 1,600 tonnes of incinerable waste over the past three years but there was no incinerator yet.

Action plan sought

At the Common Effluent Treatment Plant, Jeedimetla, the Committee found that a large quantity of hazardous sludge was stored in open ponds exposed to rain. It wanted the CETP to submit to the APPCB, a time-bound action plan for transfer of the sludge of approximately 2000 tonnes to the TSDF. The team observed high levels of pollution in Noor Mohammed Kunta, with industries in Kattedan Industrial Area dumping effluents there.

This was despite the High Court directions and the PCB's claim that the pipes carrying effluents to the lake were blocked.

Conclusions

In the Nacharam industrial area, the team found Hindustan Coca-Cola, United Breweries and Andhra Pradesh Dairy Development Corporation discharging their treated waste into the lake. It wanted the practice to be stopped forthwith.

"It is strange that the industrialisation in Andhra Pradesh has been permitted to flourish on the graveyards of all its wetlands and lakes".

Despite a number of court orders, there was a casual approach, reflected in contaminated lakes, high pollution outfall norms and promotion of red category industries. Unless some long-term vision was drawn and implemented, there was no hope of improved scenario in the State, it concluded.

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