The Hindu Business Line : TTP may contest PCB closure notice

THE State-owned Travancore Titanium Products Ltd (TTP), the leading manufacturer of anatase grade titanium dioxide in the country, is planning to move the Kerala High Court against the closure notice served on it by the State Pollution Control Board.

According to a statement issued by the management on Thursday, a division bench of the High Court had issued an order on October 17, 2003, directing the company to implement an effluent treatment project within 30 months.

It being so, the Pollution Control Board's order for closure of the company with nearly 20 months more to go for implementing the project as permitted by the High Court is against what it had also agreed before the court, says the statement. It is pointed that TTP is one of the oldest industrial establishments in the State and that there were no clear laws on pollution control at the time of its inception. However, after the various pollution control norms came into being, the company had been implementing them in phases.

It has already taken measures to fully control air pollution by setting up a Rs 28-crore sulphuric acid plant and renovating the old plant. Similarly, the company has put in place a "dumping pit" for disposal of hazardous waste materials. On both these counts, the company has received the necessary certificates from the board.

However, in the case of effluent treatment, there are certain arrangements still to be completed. This is because compared to other industries, these are more complex and highly expensive matters for a titanium dioxide manufacturing unit.

Though the company has achieved significant improvement in production and sales in recent years, the implementation of the effluent treatment project alone at this point of time will seriously affect its financial stability.

In the circumstances, the decision is to implement the project along with capacity expansion and product diversification. The company had presented these things in detail before the High Court.

The management has further stated that the closure of the factory for even a short period will result in damage to the machinery and equipment rendering them useless. Also, in the context of globalisation, the company is struggling to maintain its presence in the national market. The closure will put to serious hardship nearly 1,250 employees and many more of those who are indirectly benefited by the company.

Our Kochi Bureau adds: Senior PCB officials said that the closure notice to Travacore Titanium Products was served as per a directive from the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee that closure notice be served on industrial units functioning without adequate pollution control machinery, including effluent treatment plants (ETPs). TTP was issued closure notice on October 10, the officials said.

The monitoring committee had recommended the closure of all industrial units in the State functioning without an ETP. As many as 22 small and medium scale units in the State face automatic closure after it was found that these units had not applied for authorisation to operate under the hazardous waste rules despite the SCMC directive.

The SCMC had made it clear to the Government that the closure notice issued could not be withdrawn as the Supreme Court has given an order stating that those units functioning without authorisation should be closed forthwith.

The Committee also said that the only recourse for these units would be to approach the apex court.

Dr Claude Alvares, Member, SCMC, said that the monitoring committee turned down a request made by the industrial units to provide an extension of one more month to set up storage facilities. He said that the board would start issuing closure notices from October 16 to all those units that had failed to comply with the SCMC directives.

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