Company chief to meet PCB chairman tomorrow
‘Immediate shutdown not technically feasible’
The Hindustan Insecticides Limited (HIL) unit here, which has been slapped with a closure notice by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB), is hopeful of averting a shutdown over the deficits in complying with the board’s pollution control norms.
K.K. Dhar, general manager of the public-sector unit which manufactures endosulfan and other pesticides, told The Hindu that the work of transferring the hazardous waste to the Common Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility at Ambalamedu would be completed by the end of this month.
Waste removal on
“The work of transferring the waste is progressing,” he said. Some truckloads of sludge had already been transferred.
The board had asked the factory to ‘close down all the operations and processes with immediate effect’ and report compliance within seven days.
Mr. Dhar said the HIL being a chemical factory could not be shut down immediately as it had to follow a series of technical procedures.
Mr. Dhar said that he would meet the Pollution Control Board chairman on Thursday.
He would show the board the measures the factory had taken to remove the waste and try to convince the officials that the work would be over before the onset of monsoon.
Mr. Dhar said he would urge the board to let the factory continue to function as an immediate shutdown was not technically feasible.