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It is submitted that the industry was earlier issued notice along with an opportunity of personal hearing before the Hon’ble Chairman of the Board on 17.11.2023 in the said hearing, it was decided as under:
1. The renewal of ‘consent to operate’ applied by the industry under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 be granted to the industry for a short period i.e.upto31.01.2024.
2. The industry shall submit bank guarantee amounting to Rs. 25 lakhs within 7 days as assurance to comply with the pollution control laws to the o/o Environmental Engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Regional Office, SAS Nagar.
3. Environmental Engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Regional Office, SAS Nagar shall encash the bank guarantee amounting to Rs. 15 lakhs earlier deposited by the industry immediately and thereafter send the report to the Competent Authority.
4. A committee headed by Sh. Paramjit Singh, SEE, Zonal Office-1, Ludhiana, Mrs. Anuradha Sharma, Environmental Engineer, Regional Office, Roopnagar, Sh. Mohit Singla, AEE, Regional office, Patiala alongwithDr. Anoop Verma, Professor, Thappar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET), Patiala, as Technical Expert shall visit the industry and submit technical report w.r.t.water auditing, groundwater study in and around the industry, adequacy of ETP/MEE, complete material balance including generating of sludge and study as to whether unit is based on ZLD Technology or not, within 20 days with concrete recommendations.
5. A separate letter shall be written to Dr. Anoop Verma, Professor, School of Energy and Environment, TIET, Patiala to carry out water auditing, groundwater study in and around the industry, adequacy of ETP/MEE, complete material balance including generation of sludge and study as to whether unit is based on ZLD Technology or not of the industry on its request.
6. The expanses which will incurred to conduct the study by TIET, Patiala shall be bear by the industry. Also, the industry shall approach the TIET, Patiala immediately to get the study conducted.
The point wise compliance status of the said decisions is attached in the separate file.
Now, TIET has submitted its Environmental Audit Report to the Board on 28.02.2024, which is attached herewith as Annexure-A.
Further, the report of the committee constituted by the Board has also been received vide letter no. 1303 dated 29.02.2024 and 1327 dated 01.03.2024. Copies of both the letters are attached herewith as Annexure-B. As per letter no. 1303 dated 29.02.2024 the committee has opined as under:
As such, the point clarifies that the capacity of ETP would not be able to treat its effluent, as & when the plant is operated at more than 66% of its production capacity.
Therefore, it is evident that the capacity of the MEE would be in sufficient when the plant operates at full production capacity.
In light of these observations, this committee is of the opinion that the production capacity of the industry may be restrained, accordingly, so as to match the capacity of its treatment facility with its wastewater generation.
Also, vide letter no. 1327 dated 01.03.2024, the committee has mentioned as under:
1. As mentioned in Chapter- 6 of the report at Sr. no. 02, the industry has operated at 29.54% to 47.64% of its installed capacity in the last six months.
2. In the recommendations, it is reported that presently the industry operates in a zero liquid discharge manner at these capacities.
3. The institute has mentioned that ground water quality of the vicinity and has discussed its status in Capter-6 of the report at Sr. no. 04. No. adverse impact on the quality of the ground water is not found/reported.
4. The industry has obtained authorized under the HWM Rules, 2016, which is valid upto 31.03.2024 and is getting the hazardous waste disposed off, accordingly. Further, it has been noted that process flow diagram of each product w.r.t RM Consumption, Chemical usage, intermediate formations and final product formation have been given in the Chapter 2 by the institute, but material balance submitted in the study report don’t quantity the sludge generation from each product. Accordingly, Thaper Institute (IoR) may be requested to detail out generation of sludge from synthesis process of each product.
It is also worth to mention here that the analysis results of the sampling carried out by the Committee during visit on 22.12.2023 is attached in the separate file.
As per the analysis results, the concentration of various parameters in RO Permeate (which is used in utilities and onto land for plantation), were found to be within the permissible limits. Also, as per the above analysis results, no heavy metals or high organic loading was found in the sample collected form the stagnation observed in the plantation area .
Details of NGT matter in O.A. no. 173/2023 titled as Shalbhjit Singh v/s State of Punjab:
It is submitted that the subject cited matter- O.A no. 173/2023 titled as Shalbhjit Singh v/s State of Punjab is pending in the Honble National Green tribunal. The said matter is related to the industry M/s Nectar Lifesciences Unit-II, Saidpura, Derabassi.
The said matter was lastly listed on 05.01.2024 on the said date, PPCB had submitted written reply, a copy of which is attached herewith as Annexure-A.
In the hearing held on 05.01.2024, Hon’ble NGT has passed following orders:
“Learned Counsel appearing for the PPCB has submitted that sample analysis report of the samples taken from the unit is awaited. Therefore, a fresh report after obtaining sample analysis report will be filed. The PPCB is also directed to carryout water audit and submit the water audit report as also the water flow chart of the unit is question and also point out the sample analysis report of discharge of water from the unit by whatever source. The report will also disclose the manner of disposal of sludge by the report by filed within a period of six weeks by e-mail of judicial-ngt@gov.in preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.”
Now, the matter Shallabjit Singh v/s State of Punjab was listed in the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal on 05.03.2024. The Hon’ble National Green Tribunal while hearing the matter pointed out that the consent to operate granted to the industry has expired on 31.01.2024 and the industry is operating without having valid CTO of the Board. It is also mentioned here that Hon’ble NGT while examining the report submitted by TIET directed PPCB to file to fresh report in 4 weeks after carrying out fresh sampling including antibiotics (especially cefixime) &other salts manufactured by the industry.The detailed orders are awaited.
In view of details mentioned above and previous note dated 28.02.2024, it is once again recommended that the industry may be issued show cause notice for refusal of ‘consent to operate’ under the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, along with an opportunity of personal hearing before the Competent Authority. Competency- Hon’ble Chairman (Large, Red).
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