Livelihood of workers at risk
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DAYALS Steels Pte Ltd managing director Jay Dayal says the livelihood of 200 workers is at risk as a result of the Prohibition Notice that was slapped on the company by the Department of Environment.
The Department of Environment had issued a Prohibition Notice to the company this week citing various breaches to the Environment Management Act 2005.
In his response Mr Dayal yesterday said Dayals Steels Pte Ltd was an ISO 14001 Environment Management Systems accredited company that processed recycled steel into reinforcement bars using modern state of art “green furnace” technology.
“We also address the nation’s growing problem of collecting waste oil by burning them at high temperatures in our reheating furnaces. The high temperature destroys any volatile components of the waste oil.
“We have created employment for 200 staff and serve the needs of our construction industry in a very professional manner. This is Fiji’s own locally owned steel rolling mill accredited to ISO9001, ISO14001 and ISO45001 management systems,” he said.
Mr Dayal said the said prohibition notice referred to internal compliance and documentary matters and there was no evidence of any external breaches such as pollution or degradation of the environment.
He further claimed the director of environment had failed to carry out any site inspection to ascertain any breaches before bluntly issuing the company with a Prohibition Notice.
However, the environment director said she did not have to visit the site and used her powers conferred upon her by section 21(2) of the Environment Management Act 2005, prohibiting the company from operating the steel mill located at Yalalevu, Ba.
Referring to the Prohibition Notice Mr Dayal said the Operational Environment Management Plan and their Waste Permit were approved by the director of environment after a “painful” 18 months of delay in July 2020.
“Our company had to seek intervention of the then minister Dr Mahendra Reddy as the director was unreasonably withholding our applications.
“Following a request to seek ministerial intervention the director started victimizing our company on every instance, such as, we had written to her to seek clarification on the OEMP approval in September 2020 and kept following up and she had not responded to that till this day,” he claimed.
According to Mr Dayal in November 2022, the company imported air-conditioners from New Zealand that contained approved gases and subsequently applied for an import permit.
“The process took more than reasonable time and upon inquiry we were advised that the director is seeking Solicitor General’s advice.
“We were later advised that the clearance was given for the air-conditioners subject to destruction of imported gas and the same gas to be refilled by a local air conditioning company.”
Mr Dayal claimed he sent an email on January 4, threatening ministerial intervention to the director on January 4 when she did not respond after the above notification despite numerous reminders.
He said the Prohibition Notice was issued against the business on that same day.
“We call upon the Prime Minister to intervene and take reasonable steps to resolve this situation.”