The National Green Tribunal has ordered notices to pharma units and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) on a petition seeking to restrain production of drugs in the Patancheru industrial belt in Medak district.
The petitioner alleged that the bulk drug manufacturer had been producing drugs for which the company had not obtained valid licences and was letting untreated and partially treated effluents into various water bodies.
In his petition, K Chidambarum, president of the Citizens Forum For Better Patancheru Constituency said that in 2012, he made a representation to the Andhra Pradesh High Court highlighting the plight of villagers in Kazipalli, Sultanpur and 15 surrounding villages on the banks of Nakka Vagu, which was converted into a PIL by the court.
Bulk drug manufacturers, in total disregard of environment norms, had discharged untreated effluents into the rivulet, causing widespread pollution. They also built an illegal sump with check dam above Jillela Vagu and started discharging into that sump. When this was taken up with the APPCB, the board directed the companies to treat their effluents in a common treatment plant.
However, the check dam was breached in April last year, causing heavy pollution. Later, the board issued orders for remediation, which too were followed inadequately. This resulted in several closure orders.
In the meantime, this order of the board was challenged before the appellate authority, in which the petitioner impleaded himself as a party as per the orders of the High Court in the PIL. The authority, however, passed a common order suspending the closure orders and leaving it to the state government to take a policy decision on the representations of the manufacturers against the order of the board.
Therefore, the petitioner was forced to knock the doors of the NGT. Admitting the petition, the southern bench ordered notice to respondents returnable by December 4.