Ready mix plant in Gachibowli, ignores pollution control board notice

HYDERABAD: A ready mix concrete (RMC) plant has allegedly been operating right in the middle of Gachibowli even as the Telangana State Pollution Control Board has washed its hands off the mater after serving the unit a closure notice.
Nearly three months after the PCB’s notice which is loaded with heavy penalty clauses for not suspending operations, ICS True Integral Concrete Pvt Ltd was found to be violating the order.

The FCI Employees Cooperative Society in whose layout the RMC was installed in Plot No.s  62, 68 and 70 approached the Telangana High Court with a plea to direct all the authorities concerned including the PCB to ensure that the unit was seized and the material confiscated as part of total compliance with the closure notice.

The plot owners and residents in the surrounding buildings complained that the plant had been operating with a generator after the power supply was disconnected. Ironically, the PCB warned the officials of the RMC plant that they would attract prosecution under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act 1988 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act 1987, if they ran the plant with a diesel generator or any other mechanical device.

Earlier, the task force committee of the PCB visited the site and found that the RMC had been operating within the prohibited 10 km radius of the twin water bodies of Himayatsagar and Osmansagar, that too without obtaining consent of the Board. Further, it was found that the operations were carried out without adequate equipment or measures to control air pollution thereby causing pollution and affecting public health and environment.

The PCB had warned that the unit would be liable for prosecution and punishment including imprisonment for a term ranging between one-and-a-half-years to six years with a fine, if they continued operations even after receiving the notice.