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Prohibition of locating stone crusher units upheld

BHUBANESWAR: Appellate Authority of Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) chaired by a sitting High Court Judge upheld the prohibition of locating polluting units such as stone crusher within 500 metre from National Highway and one km from a village.

Chairman of appellate authority Justice B. P Das gave the direction while adjudicating a petition filed by Maa Dakhinakali Stone Crushers in Nayagarh district challenging OSPCB’s order to shift the unit as it was not meeting siting criteria.

“We hold that the appellant unit has violated the sicting criteria in regards to its location from the nearest village – Biruda and there is no infirmity in the impugned order passed by the board,” Justice Das said.

Law officer of OSPCB B. P. Pattajoshi had submitted that since the appellant unit as per the inspection report of regional officer of the board was located at a distance of 400 metres from the nearest village Biruda in Nayagarh district and did not conform to the siting criteria.

Mr. Pattajoshi also drew attention on Orissa High Court taking serious note of the violation of the siting conditions stipulated for establishment of crushers units.

In Orissa, about 1,300 stone crushers units were operating with more than 600 such units alleged to be violating the existing norms. More than 200 stone crushers units have moved to High Court seeking relief against OSPCB’s closure notices, sources said.

Functioning of stone crushers unit came to purview of OSPCB under the Air Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1981 in 2002. Since then the pollution regulating authority has slapped 200 closure notices.

However, the district administration has reportedly failed to implement most of the closure notices on stone crushers’ units.

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