This is an archive article published on January 6, 2021
Maharashtra CM’s directive: Seal industrial units discharging untreated waste in Panchganga river
The directions came during a meeting held by the chief minister with officials of the Kolhapur district collectorate, MIDC, MPCB and people's representatives.
A fornight after thousands of fish were found dead in the polluted Panchganga river, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to seal the industrial units which release untreated waste in the river. The CM also directed the Kolhapur district collectorate to submit a report on filing of an FIR against activists protesting against river pollution last month.
The directions came during a meeting held by the chief minister with officials of the Kolhapur district collectorate, MIDC, MPCB and people’s representatives.
“The chief minister has directed that industrial units which are found discharging untreated waste should be sealed. He said these units should be allowed to open only after they have taken necessary corrective action,” Kolhpur District Collector Daulat Desai told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
On December 24, The Indian Express had reported that thousands of fish were found dead in Panchganga river near Terwad village in Kolhapur district. Angry villagers had tied up a senior official of the MPCB, claiming nothing had been done in the matter despite repeated complaints by them. The official was released only after the MPCB promised action against officials of the Ichalkaranji civic body.
Desai said there were nearly 68 processing plants and 400 household textile units of dyeing and sizing in Ichalkaranji town, which were a major cause of concern.
MPCB regional officer Sachin Harbad was tied up to a stone structure
“When the common effluent treatment plant in Ichalkaranji malfunctions, untreated waste makes its way to the river. The CETP is run by the local industrial association… The processing plants and household units in Ichalkaranji have separate CETPs. But the one for household units needs upgradation as it has lesser capacity to treat water,” he said.
The large industrial units in Kolhapur have their own effluent treatment plant, said the district collector. “But sometimes these too malfunction, leading to discharge of untreated waste. MIDC and MPCB will take action against such units,” he said.
Desai said there is a proposal to set up a zero liquid discharge plant for Ichalkaranji units. “Such ZLDPs are available with units in Kolhapur. There is a proposal to set up such ZLDPs for units in Ichalkaranji. In CEPTs, the treated water is discharged in river but in ZLDPs, the waste water is recycled,” he said.
Meanwhile, the CM has asked the district collector to submit a report regarding the FIR filed against activists who had tied up the MPCB official while protesting in Terwad village. “Since there have been demands to withdraw the FIR, the chief minister has sought a report in this connection. We will soon submit it,” said Desai.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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MPCB regional officer Sachin Harbad was tied up to a stone structure
