The Hindu Business Line : Vizag fishermen threaten stir against drug units

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Vizag fishermen threaten stir against drug units

Our Bureau

Visakhapatnam , Dec 20

Fishermen of Visakhapatnam district are opposing the construction of four bulk drug units belonging to a Hyderabad-based group at Nallamadapalem village in Nakkapalli mandal.

The fishermen have threatened to launch an agitation if the construction work is not stopped immediately.

At a press meet here on Wednesday, leaders of the Fishermen's Struggle Committee said no proper public hearing was conducted before starting the construction and "a hurried ritual in the name of a public hearing was gone through".

They said the discharge of wastewater and effluents from the unit - Hetero Drugs - would adversely affect fisheries in the region and "40,000 fishermen in 20 villages would be affected."

Mr Ch. Rajeswara Rao, convener of the Committee, said the construction should be halted immediately and a proper public hearing conducted to ascertain and address the grievances of local fishermen.

"Then only, with their permission, can the construction be taken up," he said and added that an agitation would be launched if the Government did not heed their pleas.

Several representatives of fishermen and other local representatives spoke along the same lines.

Mr K. Sreerama Murthy, environmental engineer of the Visakhapatnam branch of the AP Pollution Control Board, however, said that a public hearing had been conducted at Narsipatnam RDO office on February 16, 2006, and there had been no opposition to the units then. He said the rapid environment impact assessment was conducted by the Visakhapatnam branch of the National Institute of Oceanography.

Four bulk drug units - Hetero Drugs, Hetero Labs, Cymed Labs and Cirex Pharmaceuticals - were being set up at a cost of Rs 34 crore with approval from the APPCB. However, a final approval would be needed before production commences.

Mr Murthy said the treated effluents would be discharged into the sea through a pipeline and, according to the study conducted by NIO, there would be no adverse impact on the fisheries. The studies were conducted on the basis of treated effluents from the Hyderabad plant of the group, as production had not commenced here, he explained.

Dr T. Patanjali Sastry of the Centre for Environment, Rajahmundry, said he was a member of the committee which had examined the proposal.

"I have expressed my reservations on the marine disposal of effluents. Though it is claimed that the effluents will be fully treated and then let out into the sea, the past track record of the bulk drug industry in Andhra Pradesh does not inspire confidence. There is no mechanism, or agency, to monitor regularly whether the effluents are being properly treated or not. Even then, it may not be safe to let out treated effluents into the sea."

Dr Sastry said the reverse osmosis technology, though expensive, should be adopted to treat the effluents and there should be zero discharge. "The required membranes for reverse osmosis may have to be imported from the US and the industry should be given certain tax incentives and subsidies for adoption of the technology. We cannot allow the industry to play havoc with the marine environment. Lakhs of fishermen are dependent on it," he opined.