|
TNPCB Orders Tagros Chemical
Shut; Cuts Electricity Connection
Cuddalore, 6 March, 2006 – The Tamilnadu
Pollution Control Board at 4.30 p.m. issued closure orders and disconnected
the electricity to Tagros Chemicals, a
manufacturer of synthetic pyrethroids, a class of
highly toxic pesticides. The company, which is located in Pachaiyankuppam village, had expanded capacity
illegally, and was manufacturing and exporting products that it was not authorised to produce. On November 27, 2005, the company
was found dumping toxic effluents on a farmer’s land in Poondiyankuppam, a nearby village within the Semmankuppam Panchayat.
The president of the Panchayat
had in December 2005 invoked a seldom used clause under the Environmental
Protection Act, 1986, and written to the Tamilnadu
Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Environment & Forests
-- “Since the Ministry of
Environment & Forests and the Tamilnadu
Pollution Control Board seem incapable or unwilling to take any action to
implement the law, I intend to prosecute Tagros
Chemicals and its contractor Mr. Senthil Velan under Section 15 of the Environmental Protection
Act, 1986, and under Sections 6 and 16 of the Hazardous Waste (Management
& Handling) Rules, 1989. I request the Tamilnadu
Pollution Control Board to provide us with all the reports relating to Tagros in its possession to us. Please let us know who
the occupier of the facility is, as he/she is liable under Section 16 of
the Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1989.”
Indian law allows citizens to write to the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board requesting it to
prosecute the offender within 60 days, failing which the citizen can step
in the shoes of the regulator and conduct the prosecution.
Tagros Chemicals claims to be
“India’s leading manufacturer exporters of various Synthetic Pyrethroids like Cypermethrin,
Permethrin, Alpha cypermethrin,
Deltamethrin and various other products like Imidachloprid, Hexaconazole, Propiconazole.” This was
brought to the notice of the TNPCB in August 2004, less than a month before
the company was to have a statutory public hearing to seek permission for
expanding capacity and introducing new products.
According to SACEM, as early as in 2004, reports from
workers and residents of SIPCOT indicated that not only had Tagros completed construction for the expanded
capacity, but also engaged in production, including of new products. The
matter was brought to the notice of the TNPCB and the Supreme Court
Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes in September 2004, and
subsequently at the public hearing on September 7, 2004. No action was
taken by the TNPCB, and the company continued to manufacture and export the
unauthorised products in the illegally expanded
factory. In February 2005, the SCMC recommended its closure to TNPCB. The
company continued to operate illegally until it was shut-down today, a year
later.
In the 17 month period that it operated illegally, and
despite the knowledge of the Inspector of Factories, the District Collector
of Cuddalore, and the TNPCB, 6 people were
injured and one killed in four serious accidents in Tagros,
according to SACEM records. During the same period, the company illegally
dumped toxic wastes on open land on two separate occasions.
“Gas Trouble” – a September 2004 SACEM
study on SIPCOT’s air quality –
reports finding 14 chemicals in one air sample taken downwind of Tagros. Cancer-causing chemicals like Carbon
Tetrachloride and ethylene dichloride were found at levels 11,538 and
22,973 times higher than levels considered safe by US EPA’s Region 6
screening levels.
Interestingly, the Union Ministry of Environment &
Forests seems unconcerned about the illegal expansion, or the SCMC’s recommendations for closure. A senior
bureaucrat from MoEF also serves as member
secretary of the SCMC. Ignoring SCMC’s
recommendations, Tagros had directly submitted
its application for environmental clearance to the Union Ministry,
by-passing the TNPCB. Rather than take action, the MoEF
is actively considering the file. Conditionally cleared by the technical
committee, the MoEF currently has the “file
under process.”
Tagros is not the only offender in
SIPCOT, Cuddalore. The SCMC had also recommended
closure orders for TANFAC, and similar complaints of toxic waste dumping
and effluent spills are pending for months against Pondicherry
Alum, SPIC, Loyal Super Fabrics and CUSECS.
The TNPCB remains highly inconsistent and arbitrary in
the manner in which it applies the law. Tuticorin-based
Sterlite Industries is operating an entire
illegally constructed factory complex consisting of a 300,000 tonnes/year copper smelter, a 1,25,000 tonnes/year refiner, a power plant, an oxygen plant, and
a Continuous Cast Rod unit.
But Sterlite is too
well-connected to suffer Tagros’ fate.
Despite repeated emphasis by the SCMC that Sterlite
has both illegally expanded and endangered the environment, the TNPCB and MoEF have regularised the
violation.
Sterlite’s Tuticorin
smelter complex has a disturbing track record of safety. Between 1996 and
2004, at least 139 people have reportedly been injured and 13 have lost
their lives in 15 incidents.
Related stories
1. Tagros Chemicals caught
red handed dumping hazardous waste in SIPCOT area
http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/updates_061205.html
2. Two more industrial accidents reported from Tagros Chemicals in SIPCOT
http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/updates_311005.html
|
