India News | NGT Seeks Report on Plea Seeking Action Against Discharge of Waste by Pharma Industries in Himachal
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The National Green Tribunal Thursday formed a committee and directed it to submit a report on a plea seeking action against the discharge of waste by two pharmaceutical industries into Sirsa and Satluj rivers at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.
New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal Thursday formed a committee and directed it to submit a report on a plea seeking action against the discharge of waste by two pharmaceutical industries into Sirsa and Satluj rivers at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel constituted a committee comprising officials from the Central Pollution Control Board, state pollution control board and Solan District Magistrate.
The tribunal said that increasing occurrence of multi-resistant pathogens is a serious global threat to human health and it is finding its way into the water bodies and drinking water through industrial discharge and also due to heavy use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine.
"Let the committee look into the above issues in the light of contents of the application and take such further action as may found necessary. The state pollution control board will be the nodal agency for compliance and coordination. A factual and action taken report may be furnished to the tribunal within three months by e-mail," the bench said.
The NGT directed the petitioner to serve set of papers on CPCB, state pollution control board and District Magistrate and file affidavit of service within ten days.
The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by NGO, Veterans Forum for Transparency in Public Life, seeking action against discharge of waste into common effluent treatment plant (CETP) by Helios Pharmaceuticals and Acme Lifescience into Sirsa and Satluj rivers at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.
According to the applicant, CETP is not connected to pharmaceutical units at Barotiwala and Nalagarh who are discharging their effluents directly into the rivers.
It is further stated that even after treatment, pharmaceutical ingredients may still be coming out from the industries unless treatment plants are specialised for the purpose.
The industries located at Baddi area are generating 20779 kilo litre per day of industrial effluent, out of which 17894 KLD is being treated at CETP and remaining 2885 KLD is being disposed of by the occupiers directly into river Sirsa.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)