The Hindu : Kerala News : CPI(M) to launch campaign against polluting steel units

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

CPI(M) to launch campaign against polluting steel units

Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD: The CPI(M) will launch a mass campaign against the polluting steel rerolling units and the proposed sponge iron factories in the Kanjikode and Malampuzha areas of the district.

In a statement here on Tuesday, the party district secretary, P. Unni, said a convention of mass organisations would be held at Pudussery on June 4 to chalk out an action plan against the polluting units. Thirty-six of the 46 steel rerolling units in the State are located in Pudussery grama panchayat in the Kanjikode-Pudussery-Walayar industrial belt. One sponge iron unit is under construction near the Malampuzha reservoir. Another one is proposed at Kanjikode. These power-intensive units not only pollute the environment but also indulge in power theft. They were fined to the tune of Rs.29 crores for power theft recently by the Vigilance wing of the Kerala State Electricity Board.

According to a zoning map prepared by the Central and State Pollution Control Boards, one steel rerolling unit could pollute the air in an area of 10 sq km. It will also affect the animal and plant life in 20 sq km. So the functioning of 36 factories in five wards of Pudussery panchayat is fraught with dangerous pollution, he said.

Mr. Unni said the sponge iron factory under construction near Malampuzha reservoir would pollute the waters and the environment. The reservoir provides drinking water to 15 lakh people in Palakkad municipality and four panchayats and irrigate 25,000 hectares of paddy field.

Besides the CPI(M), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Janata Dal(S) have launched campaigns against the move to set up the sponge iron factory and a cement manufacturing unit near the reservoir. There is resentment against the biomedical waste management common facility started last year in the catchment area of the reservoir.

The Malampuzha Dam Protection Committee, Malampuzha Environment Protection Committee, Bharathapuzha Samrakshana Samiti, Kalpathypuzha Samrakshana Samiti and the Janajagratha in a joint statement on Tuesday condemned the decision of Pudussery panchayat, the Pollution Control Board and the State Government to allow these polluting industrial units close to the reservoir.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala