Court orders 22 polluting units shut in Gujarat
By IANSWednesday, April 14, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat High Court has ordered 22 units shut in a south Gujarat industrial estate for lacking requisite facilities to treat effluents.
The court Tuesday ordered Sarigam Industries Association in Valsad district of south Gujarat to close down 22 units located on its estate after a Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) inspection report said that these units had no facility to treat effluents.
A division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi issued the directions over a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by residents of a housing society who alleged untreated effluent from the units was being dumped into the sea, damaging marine life.
The court allowed 14 other units, which did not meet the minimum criteria prescribed by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, to continue trial production but denied them permission to start commercial production.
Two other units were allowed to continue trial production but only at 50 percent of their capacity.
The SVNIT inspected 39 units and found that 22 units had the effluent treatment facility while the rest had treatment plants but did not fulfil the criteria.
The court has now ordered a second inspection by the SVNIT. The PIL is scheduled to come up for hearing on May 4.
