Former Union Power Secretary E.A.S. Sarma has asked the State government to reconsider the MoU it signed for allowing an American company to relocate its refinery and establish it near Visakhapatnam.
Stating that it would lead to polluting the atmosphere, Mr. Sarma asked Petroleum Secretary G.C Chaturvedi to look into the matter.
He wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Pankaj Dwivedi on the danger to be posed by Amerind Petroleum Corporation, which had been permitted to set up an oil refinery of 7.5 million tonne as a part of PCPIR between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada.
The proposal involves dismantling a refinery near New York and reassembling it near Visakhapatnam. Mr. Sarma, convener of Forum for Better Visakha, said on the basis of his preliminary enquiry, the whole transaction appeared to be somewhat questionable.
He said prudence called for choosing established companies for setting up new refineries of this kind. Neither promoter Syed Badruddin nor Amerind seemed to have much of an experience in the field of oil refining. “To the best of my knowledge, Amerind is not a well-known company. Mr. Syed Badruddin is a promoter of auto parts, shoes and motels. The other companies with which his name is associated are relatively unknown companies,” he stated.
‘Dubious proposal'
Mr. Sarma said usually, prudent governments insist upon new refineries of state-of-art technology; not dismantled refineries from the west. “It is surprising how the government has conceded to such a proposal in this case. Such dismantled refineries are environmentally unacceptable, no matter what the promoter may say about Euro standards etc.,” he said.
Buying a second hand refinery provides scope for money laundering, as its actual price is never known with certainty, he said.
HPCL's existing refinery has recently created a panic when some toxic fumes descended on the city. APPCB is still trying to assess the situation. One more polluting refinery will not therefore be welcome in this area, especially when there is a steel plant, a power station, and a number of other polluting industries all around, he said.
