Two brick-kilns lose licence for violating PPCB orders

NGT ORDERS STATE THAT KILNS CAN OPERATE ONLY AFTER INSTALLING NEW TECHNOLOGY

GURDASPUR: District food and supplies controller (DFSC) Munish Narula on Friday suspended licences of two brick kiln owners in Gurdaspur for violating the Punjab Pollution Control Board orders of restricting kiln operations in the state from October 1 to January 31, 2019.

The DFSC, however, did not disclose the names of the brick kiln owners whose licences have been suspended.

Gurdaspur PPCB executive engineer Ravinder Bhatti said, “Recently, the local PPCB team had raided some of the kilns in the district and found 13 of them functioning despite the restriction. A report regarding the same was sent to the head officials recommending strict action against the erring brick kiln owners.”

Last week, the DFSC had issued notices to 13 brick kiln owners, who had been operating their brick kilns despite the ban imposed by the PPCB, directing them to stop firing their kilns within three days or their licences would be suspended.

The DFSC told that 11 of the violators had given undertakings to the administration that they will stop operating immediately to comply with the orders of the PPCB, whereas, two of them had failed to reply to the notices.

Hindustan Times had highlighted in its report on November 9 that as many as 12 brick kilns were operational in the district in violation of the PPCB orders of keeping them closed till January 31, 2019.

The PPCB, via its order dated April 9, 2018, had observed that owing to the worsening air quality index in the state, from October to December, all brick kilns will restrict firing. The PPCB noted that there are around 3,000 brick kilns, including 150 of Gurdaspur district, in the state and the total pollution load causes deterioration of air quality, mostly during winters.

Last month, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had also ordered that the brick kilns can start operating after installing a new ‘zigzag’ technology to keep a check on the rising air pollution in the state.

It has been learnt that many of the brick kiln owners in the district have started the process of installing the new technology (that incurs an expenditure of around ₹50 lakh each) at the kilns.