KOCHI: Peeved at the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the employees of the Eloor branch of Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in preventing violations of environmental guidelines, an environmental activist reportedly padlocked the office’s gates on Tuesday, forcing the staff to stand outside.
The police arrested and registered an FIR against the activist, Shabeer, even as other activists denied the charges levelled at him.
“This (the allegations) is simply a bullying tactic used by PCB officials who don’t want their misdeeds brought before the public,” alleged Purushan Eloor, an environmental activist. The PCB staff claimed the incident took place in the morning.
“The activist asked the around six officials who were in the office to leave before locking the gate,” said one of the staffers. For some time now, environmental activists have been raising their voices against the lethargic attitude of the employees of KSPCB’s Eloor branch.
“Eloor is an industrial estate. As per a Supreme Court directive, the KSPCB office at Eloor is a surveillance post and has to be operational 24x7. However, time and again, we have found officials missing from their posts when major incidents of pollutants being discharged into the Periyar river took place,” Makesh, another activist, told TNIE.
“Once, a lubricant-manufacturing factory in the Eloor industrial estate released untreated effluents into the river. When we came across this gross violation of environmental guidelines, we called the Eloor office, but none answered, Makesh alleged.