Committee put question on State Government’s policy to have Industrial units on and around river banks.
Recommended to take out and not to allow any further Highly Water polluting industrial units on and around river banks.
NGT constituted Monitoring Committee on Satluj-Beas River Pollution have submitted its final report before the bench. The committee clearly have indicated the loopholes of State Government policies that have allowed industrial units over and around river banks.
This is why National Green Tribunal gave clear instructions to State Government that they shall not allow setting up of a highly water polluting industry on the Bank of any river. Rather there should be a safe distance between the industry premises and the water bodies to avoid any accident like Chadha Sugar Mill Molasses incident.
The Monitoring Committee while doing the observations have found that the Chadha Sugar Mill’s Molasses open storage are located adjacent to the swamp drain at about 50 meter distance and at an higher elevation that the swamp drain (Difference of elevation is about 12-15m). There is no protection on the drain side and incase of any spillages, the molasses would naturally flow in the swamp drain directly by gravity.
The open tank of molasses had been constructed on the ground with LDPE and brick lining. The LDPE liner could not have borne high temperature approximately 90-95 Celsius. This is due to exothermic reaction and expansion in volume of molasses and would have got breached ultimately into the swamp drain by means of gravity.
The coal ash generated in Chadha Sugar Mill from Captive power plant is stored close to molasses open storage tank and was not covered with soil cover to avoid blown off.