The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has slapped closure notice on Visa Steel located at Kalinga Nagar in the district for violating pollution control norms.
The closure notice was issued on Friday after the private steel company failed to honour the repeated show cause notices issued to it to comply with pollution control norms. “The Visa Steel was served show-cause notices a month ago. It failed to comply with the directive of OSPCB to check pollution. It was further issued a reminder, but yielded no result,” said Anup Kumar Mallick, Regional Officer of OSPCB. The closure notice was served after regularly monitoring the activities of the steel company, he added.
Two Integrated Special Steel units, 0.5 million TPA each and two ferrochrome plants of 1,80,000 TPA each would be sealed, he said.
While some of the units have already been shut down, units like DRI and ESP would take at least 48 hours for returning to the normal state, he said adding we would seal those units on Monday.
Air pollution caused by sponge iron units of Visa Steel has been leading to severe respiratory problems among the people in the locality. All roads connecting the steel plant are in a bad shape while the plant released polluted water into farmland badly affecting crop production.
In the past, several complaints were lodged by villagers of Jakhpura and Kudumisahi against Visa Steel alleging pollution by the plant.
District Environment Committee paid a visit to the company to take stock of the situation. Later, a joint team consisting of senior officials from OSPCB state office and Kalinga Nagar administration paid a visit to the company on October 26 and found the steel plant violating various pollution control norms. Even after several notices, the private steel company did not adhere to pollution control norms.
Source:Indian Express