Polluting units put on notice

Top officials of the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) have warned pollution-causing industries of stringent action.

Green Visakha

No industry would be spared if it crossed the allowable limits, APPCB Chairperson Janaki Kondepi said while speaking at a meeting organised by Rajya Sabha Member and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Science, Technology, Environment, and Forests T. Subbarami Reddy on Green Visakha project.

Member-Secretary of the board Dana Kishore said a 40-member team of experts would be staying in the city for 10 days from November 10 and makes a detailed survey.

The team would pinpoint each industry and its pollution emissions.

An industry that was emitting allowable levels of pollutants would be penalised and, if necessary, production control too would be imposed, Mr. Dana Kishore said.

Collector Lav Agarwal informed that apart from the APPCB issuing a notice to the HPCL for releasing gas into the air during the last few days, the tahsildar concerned had also served a notice on the industry.

Municipal Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyulu said the GVMC would accept its role in the Green Visakha project and urged the industries to make use of its machinery.

Vice-Chairman of VUDA K. Sasidhar said the city and industries must be saturated first in the Green Visakha project and wanted the industries to give details of their expansion programmes so that the plans could be made effectively.

Mission

Chief Conservator of Forests Prateep Kumar said it was a mission, but not a project.

It would also help in improving the wildlife habitat, he said, recalling the straying of panthers into the city in the recent past.

Afforestation

The most difficult part of the project was afforestation, he said.

Deputy Chairman of Visakhapatnam Port Trust G.V.L. Satya Kumar and top officials of other industries gave their opinion.