CHANDIGARH: For violating environment rules while processing waste at the garbage processing plant at Dadumajra, Jaypee Group has been slapped by a penalty of Rs 1.46 crores by the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC).
UT environment department director Debendra Dalai, who is also holding the charge of CPCC vice-chairman, said they had issued a number of notices to the private company for violating rules and have now imposed the penalty — Rs 75,000 daily from February 20 to September 2.
The CPCC had found violations of provisions of acts related to environmental, air and water prevention and control.
The notices were issued under Section 33 A of Water (Prevention of the Pollution) Act 1974; Section 31 A of Air (Prevention of the Pollution) Act 1981 and Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act 1986.
A senior official said a CPCC team had found the effluent
treatment plant (ETP) not working properly during a visit. Processed waste and
effluent look the same.
The inspection was carried out on May 8. The notice pointed
out that mixed waste was stored in a huge quantity (may be more than 8,000MT)
on the premises and waterlogging at the plant was posing a health hazard.
The plant was not accepting full quantity of the city’s waste
(450MT) per day, taking about 200MT garbage per day on an average, the notice
had said.
The air pollution control device was also not found to be working, which could result in release of toxins such as dioxins and furans into the atmosphere. The compost unit had serious technical and operational deficiencies, the notice had said.
There were substantial non-biodegradable materials unsuitable for composting lying at the plant. Overall, it was found that the plant was functioning far below the optimum level and the processing had not been improved despite several notices and opportunities given to the authorities
Source: ET Realty
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