Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bhopal panic seeps into Singur Ash from factory with blot on record by Kinsuk Basu and Jayanta Basu

Bhopal panic seeps into Singur Ash from factory with blot on record by Kinsuk Basu and Jayanta Basu

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jun 9, 2010   modified Modified on Jun 9, 2010

Bhopal cast a pall on Singur today, fed by a cocktail of pollution, panic and politics.

A chemical factory, declared a “fit case for closure” by the state pollution control board (PCB) two months ago, spewed carbon soot-laced smoke this dawn. The plant belongs to Himadri Chemicals and Industries, a company with an annual turnover of over Rs 500 crore and said to be the country’s largest manufacturer of coal tar pitch, an ingredient used by aluminium plants.

As a cloud carrying black dust enveloped the area, hundreds of people gathered at the gates of Himadri Chemicals and Industries and demanded its immediate closure. In villages nearby, many people complained of breathlessness and nausea.

The protest soon spun out of control and some people entered the premises and ransacked the company’s property. Amar Tiwari, an official, was allegedly roughed up.

Company officials blamed “local miscreants”. A functionary of the Trinamul Congress, which is on a roll here after the Singur agitation, said it was a spontaneous protest by the suffering people with the party’s youth leaders leading from the front.

“Some local miscreants took advantage of the situation, misguided the villagers and eventually ransacked the plant and office causing damage of around Rs 50 lakh,” said Anurag Choudhary, the Himadri CEO.

Trinamul leaders in Hooghly, however, contested the claim. “This problem has been brewing for years. In view of the Bhopal gas tragedy judgment, we organised a protest and demanded compensation for those suffering from dizziness and breathlessness,” said Bhaskar Jana, the Trinamul youth wing secretary from Haripal.

The closure demand has been aired before, too, because the people in the vicinity found the pungent odour emanating from the factory overpowering.

But the immediacy of the 24-hour-old Bhopal gas tragedy verdict appears to have lent potency and resonance to the misgivings expressed by the villagers in the belt where Bengal’s farm-versus-factory battle was fought.

“This unit is operating since 2005 and, since then, it has been polluting the environment and making our existence difficult,” said Sanatan Mullick, a villager, standing outside the gate of the factory, off Durgapur Expressway, in Haripal in Hooghly. The plant is not far from the doomed Tata Nano factory.

“I was sleeping on the veranda of my house. Suddenly, I woke up early in the morning with a feeling of breathlessness…. I could not exhale or inhale properly. I rushed out holding my chest and noticed a black dust layer gradually enveloping our locality. Clothes hanging outside turned black and I knew something had gone wrong at the factory,” said Bimal Panja, a resident of Mahishtikri village in Singur.

A preliminary report of the PCB confirmed that the area witnessed “unusual rise” of carbon deposit on leaves and crops. A PCB team visited the villages around the factory after the Hooghly district magistrate contacted the environment watchdog.

In a statement, the company also admitted that there was “a momentary emission of black ash aerosol” in the atmosphere but added that it was “completely non-hazardous and harmless” and was controlled soon.

According to a scientist with the PCB, carbon soot turns black ash aerosol when it comes into contact with moisture or oil. It can cause a pungent smell, nausea, uneasiness, suffocation and respiratory distress.

“The preliminary report indicates limited emission of carbon which does not seem very serious. However, we have ordered a detailed inquiry,” said M.L. Meena, the state environment secretary.

Although the company said it did not deal with any hazardous chemicals, the plant falls in the “special red category industry”. An industry in such a category, which includes sponge iron units and power plants, is considered to be highly polluting and, therefore, cannot come up in a congested area.

The Himadri plant is not in a congested area but it borders a 300-metre-wide paddy field in the rear beyond which villages are located.

According to PCB documents, it had found the factory “a fit case for closure” during a hearing on March 23 because of non-compliance with environmental norms related to sound pollution, effluent treatment and odour emission.

The PCB team had then found that the level of oil and grease in the discharged effluent was 2,057 milligrams per litre against the permissible limit of 10 milligrams per litre.

A board-appointed committee — which observed in its report that the unit was “very reluctant to adopt pollution control system since its inception” — had rolled out a 15-point plan for Himadri Chemicals and gave it time till May 31 to comply with the recommendations.

A company official said the recommendations had been complied with. This morning’s emission occurred before the PCB could visit the plant and verify if the 15-point plan had been implemented.

Besides complaints of breathlessness and giddiness, several people in Mahishtikri village — a big supplier of cottage cheese to sweet shops in and around Calcutta — complained that they spotted black splotches on milk kept in containers on the roof.

“Keeping milk in huge containers on the rooftop is an age-old practice here…. This morning, we had to throw away around 50 litres of milk after it turned grey and became unfit for consumption,” said Sreemanta Giri, a resident.


The Telegraph, 9 June, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100609/jsp/frontpage/story_12545462.jsp


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close