Industrial units to send a joint delegation

Industrial units have decided to send a joint delegation comprising industry representatives, professionals and officials of chambers of industry and commerce to meet the chief minister, health minister and officials of the Pollution Control Board to highlight the crisis facing their units.

The decision was taken at a meeting of representatives from 198 industrial units, which have received closure notice from the Pollution Control Board. The meeting was organised under the aegis of the Kerala Management Association.

Representatives from Kochi Refineries Limited, Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore, Hindustan Insecticides Limited, Binani Zinc, Hindustan Latex Limited, Hindustan Machine Tools, Kerala Chemicals and Proteins Limited, Indo German Carbon, Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited, OEN India, Philips Carbon Black, Sud-Chemi, Travancore Cochin Chemicals Ashoka Textiles and Carborundum Universal were among those present at Tuesday's meeting.

The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee had found that the State had no "treatment, storage, disposal and management facilities for hazardous wastes," said a statement from the Kerala Management Association here.

Industrial units, which received closure notice from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for not complying with the norms for handling and disposal of hazardous waste have decided to seek legal opinion before approaching the Supreme Court to obtain an extension of time to comply with the order of the Apex Court's monitoring committee.

Meanwhile, one of the concrete suggestions that had emerged out of a round of discussions between representatives of the industry and bureaucrats of the industries department was that of setting up a common effluent treatment plant at the Edayar Industrial Area and to avail of central government assistance for such a facility, EOUs, SEZ, EPCES.