Kendrapara, Nov 22: The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (ospcb) and Jajpur district administration on Monday shut down the Visa Steel Plant and all its operations in the industrial hub of Kalinga nagar.
Since last five years a lot of public protests against the plant have occurred regarding a lot of pollution in the area. In a last few months a lot of locals had shown their rage to shut down the plant. Finally after a spot inspection earlier during the month of May, the officials found serious flaws in the plant, like damaged filter bags which led to emission of gas, Inter-road with non-black top for which dust emission was observed during transportation, water sprinklers were in-effective etc. And importantly fly ash was found which is a major threat to the health of people especially children. The plant which employed nearly 1200 people was finally sealed in the presence of tehsildar, Sukinda, IIC of Kalinga nagar PS and Officials of OSPCB, said sources.
An official notice was issued (under section 33(A) of the water prevention and control of pollution Act, 1974 and section 31(A) of the air prevention and control of pollution Act, 1981) to the plant authorities last week, to shutdown the unit.
Source said, Visa steel will hold a meeting with the officials of OSPCB and the district administration to discuss how to comply to the pollution norms.”
