Sterling Biotech Limited, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company which was shut down in June on charges of polluting the Pykara Lake, has been given a temporary reprieve by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to operate its plant, located near Sholur in Udhagamandalam, in a limited capacity.
The company, which was served a closure notice earlier this year, has had its electricity connection terminated. Conservationists and activists have long accused the company of releasing untreated effluents directly into the Pykara, polluting both the dam and other streams further downstream, including the Moyar river.
The TNPCB had ordered the factory to be closed down after they failed to set up a zero discharge effluent treatment facility in its premises. Nilgiris District Collector Innocent Divya said that the company had been given permission by the TNPCB to run their factory in a limited capacity for the time being.
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‘Will be monitored’
“Sterling Biotech has claimed that there are raw materials stored inside their factory, and permission has been granted to resume production till they run out,” she said.
The company already has an effluent treatment facility which is capable of processing the waste which will be generated when it resumes functioning, Ms. Divya added.
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“The TNPCB has also made it clear that they would give permission for the company to resume full production only when the zero-discharge effluent treatment plant is set up,” the Collector said. Officials said that they will closely monitor the discharge of effluents from the facility.
Production will resume once Tangedco reinstates the plant’s power supply.