TIRUPATI: The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board on Friday ordered immediate closure of the plants of Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL) situated at Karakambadi and Nunegundlapalli villages in Chittoor district.
The PCB said there is severe pollution in the villages surrounding the ARBL plants. In the notice served on Saturday, PCB officials cited the presence of lead in the blood samples collected from the villagers. “The blood lead values have exceeded in villagers by 35 per cent. The excess lead values in blood samples of the surrounding villagers show that the operations of the unit are endangering the public health,” the notice said.
The PCB also requested the APSPDCL to disconnect power supply to ARBL run MVRLA & Automotive Batteries Division, small battery unit, Tubular unit, and units located on Chittoor-Bangalore Road, Nunegundlapalli and Bangarupalem in Chittoor district.
It may be mentioned here that ARBL belongs to the family of former TDP legislator Galla Arunakumari and Guntur TDP MP Galla Jayadev. Meanwhile, the management of ARBL said they were taking all necessary steps to comply with the orders of the APPCB and pressed into action its contingency plans to avoid disruption in supply of batteries to its customers across product segments including essential service segments like defence, hospitals and telecom.
“We shall continue to make our efforts to engage with the APPCB authorities in the interest of avoiding disruption in supplies to some of our largest clients in sensitive sectors. At a time of a national emergency in the form of the Covid pandemic, such a disruption could be calamitous,” the management said.