Kerala - Kochi   

Periyar pollution: collective penalty in cold storage

KOCHI: The Kerala State Pollution Control Board has put on hold the decision to collect the Rs.2.5-crore collective penalty imposed on factories on the Eloor-Edayar industrial belt for polluting the Periyar.

The decision to go slow on collecting the fine, imposed using ‘polluter pays’ principle, has come at a time when the river is facing increasing threat from indiscriminate human interference.

Sources in the PCB said that working out a scientific formula to fix the individual burden of the collective penalty got derailed for want of support from the authorities concerned.

The factories have allegedly exerted pressure on the board not to go ahead with the collection of penalty.

The collective penalty was one among several recommendations made by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes (SCMC).

In its report on the hazardous waste scenario in Kerala, the committee observed that the Periyar was an “ecological disaster in the making”.

Based on the final environment audit report of the Local Area Environment Committee in July, 2005, the committee had asked the PCB to work out the individual shares of the collective penalty at the earliest.

Senior PCB officials were also asked to issue orders under the Hazardous Waste Rules to implement the recommendation.

Sources said that the industrial units were not ready to foot the bill for the rejuvenation of the river. It was reliably learnt that the industry representatives also approached the government to go slow on the proposal. Major industrial units feared that they would be forced to meet a lion’s share of the collective penalty.

Board sources said that the original plan was to implement the polluter pays principle while distributing the penalty among industrial units in the region.

The board had plans to evolve a scheme to find out the intensity of pollution caused by each industrial unit at Eloor and Edayar.

The board had assured the apex court panel that the nature of effluents dumped into the river by each unit and the impact of the hazardous waste on its ecology would be analysed scientifically.

The regional office of the board was supposed to provide input on toxic materials contaminating the river. Samples taken from the Periyar and analysed by the board officials would have been considered in the final award of the collective fine.

It was also decided to analyse study reports on the water quality before finalising the individual share.

SCMC sources said that the failure of the board to evolve plans to restore the river in its original condition would be highlighted when the final report on the hazardous waste scenario in Kerala came for discussion before the apex court.

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