Journalism of Courage
Even as the stay order on construction at Chakan for the proposed Research and Development project of Dow India remains,the committee appointed to submit a report on the grievances of the public in the area regarding the project,will see yet another change of membership.
The committee,appointed under retired justice of the Bombay High Court,R J Sinkar,will see IIT Mumbai scientist Dr S K Gupta replaced by A Garg,an expert on industrial safety.
Valsa Nair,principal secretary of environment,said,The change had to be made. The committee,which was supposed to submit the report last year,will probably present it after the assembly elections. Till then,the status quo remains and no construction will be allowed, said Nair.
The other members include S B Khandale of Groundwater Survey and Development Authority (GSDA) and member-secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) Sanjay Khandare. Earlier,SP Kurudkar headed the committee,but Kinkar replaced him.
The committee will have to hear the grievances/complaints of public regarding the setting up of the above project as well as conduct site inspections. It was also to examine whether the proposed R&D centre is likely to cause damage to the environment in terms of health,ground water pollution,air pollution and its impact.
However,Dow India declined to comment on the present issue. Roysten DMello of Dow India media relations said that currently,the interim facility is fully functional with more than 150 scientists. With regard to the Chakan location,we have not and will not make final decisions until such time that we receive a resolution from the Maharashtra government.
