The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has directed the Eloor, Kochi-based Hindustan Insecticides Ltd (HIL) to close down “all operations and processes with immediate effect.”

The closure order was invoked on Tuesday on grounds of violations of provisions under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Trans-boundary Movement) Rules 2008.

Compliance with the direction is to be reported to the Chairman of KSPCB within seven days of receipt of therefore, it added.

Incorporated under the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Government of India, in March, 1954, HIL, was primarily mandated to supply DDT for the National Malaria Eradication Programme.

Subsequently, the company diversified into agro pesticides, which also included the production of endosulfan.

The closure order recalled a specific provision in the “integrated consent to operate” where the company was required to close the earthen lagoon containing hazardous waste after transferring the liquid part for effluent treatment.

In this manner, the entire quantity of the hazardous wastes should have been shifted to the common treatment, storage and disposal facility at Ambalamedu.

According to the terms of the “consent to operate,” the back-filling of the lagoon after de-sludging should have been completed before June 30, 2010. The Chief Engineer at the regional office of the KSPCB had directed the industry to carry out the back-filling immediately. This was not adhered to, which triggered the issuance of a show-cause notice for non-compliance.

The company had then extended an assurance that the de-sludging and the transfer of the sludge would be completed before April 30, 2011.

But an inspection by officers of the KSPCB on April 18, 2011, found that the company had not taken “adequate or earnest” measures for removal of the sludge. A fresh show-cause notice was issued asking of it why action against the aforesaid violations should not be taken.

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