The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APCB), incorporated in the year 1976 by State Government under the Water (prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, has been playing a catalytic role in implementing environmental policies, regulations and developing frameworks to manage both wastes and natural resources more efficiently.
The board was reconstituted in the year 1982 and was entrusted with additional responsibility of Air (prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 since then. The state government in consultation with the board has declared that the provisions of Air Act shall apply to the entire state of AP.
The enactment of environment (Protection) Act, 1986 has widened the scope of activities of all pollution control boards for strict enforcement of various enactment’s including Water and Air acts to ensure a pollution free environment.
Taking forward its endeavour, recently the pollution control board has cracked its whip on the manufacturing units violating environment norms in Nalgonda districts of the state. The board has ordered eight pharmaceutical units manufacturing bulk drugs to close operations following a High Court order to crack down on factories polluting the environment in the state.
According to sources, these are the same old units which have faced similar actions earlier. But eventually they had convinced the PCB to let them operate again after briefly complying with pollution control norms in treating effluents before getting back to their old ways of defaulting with the environment protection norms.
“It has become a common practice by most of the manufacturing units to deceive the PCB by initially adhering to all norms temporarily during official inspections. But later on they ignore the norms and come back to square one again,” said a source.
Many of the pharmaceutical units do not have a structured and sustainable effluent treatment facility. They just dump their effluents untreated in the nearby waste lands or open pits leaving the surrounding area polluted either by pungent smell or by polluting the under ground water. Majority of them adopt temporary measures because of the fear of the increasing burden of operating and maintenance costs to have a long term effluent treatment plan.
The state PCB had launched a drive to inspect polluting units following a recent Andhra Pradesh High court notice to eight pharmaceutical companies in Nalgonda district for environment pollution in response to a petition filed by Karne Prahbakar.
The PCB is also analyzing effluent samples of other pharmaceutical units in Choutuppal, Chityal, Pochampally, Mellacheruvu, Narketpally, Bhongir and Bibinagar.
Taking forward its initiative further to check polluting pharmaceutical and bulk drug units in the state, APPCB is now focusing its concentration on units located in Medak district. After taking stock of the industrial areas located at Kazipally and Gaddaporthram villages, the board had issued warning notices to the bulk drug units that are causing environment pollution in the district.
Upon receiving the High Court order, the PCB is taking serious measures to tackle effluents accumulated in industrial areas of Jinnaram mandal of Medak district.
Worried over the pollution in their villages, the local activists had complained about the stinking smell emanating from the factories. It is understood that land in about 22 villages has been affected and has become unfit for doing cultivation.
Acting on complaints given by the local residents of the Kazipally and Gaddaporthram villages, a team of PCB officials visited Jinnaram mandal and took stock of the situation. As the industrial area is located far from the city, the regulatory officials rarely visited the area earlier. The effluents released in Jinnaram mandal had totally spoiled the ground water due to seepage of harmful chemicals.
The board’s member secretary, B.S.S Prasad, after reviewing the Consent for Operation of various factories had asked Model Industrial Association president, K. Raja Rao to ensure that corrective measures are in place in a few days or else, the erring industrial units should be ready to face severe action.
As the Patancheru common effluent plant is near to the industrial area, the PCB officials had directed the factories to send their effluents to the treatment plant and clear seepages every day to ensure zero-accumulation.
Earlier the state government had instituted a committee to inspect the polluting industries in the state. As a part of this, Dr Divi Sarangapani Iyengar, former deputy director and head, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, and Padmanabha Rao participated as members of the committee.
Bio medical waste management in hospitals
In addition to this, the PCB has also initiated action against all the healthcare establishments (both public and private) in the state to dispose off bio medical waste in a safe manner. In this regard the PCB has asked all the hospitals, clinics, and laboratories to get registered with it.
Concerned over the growing pollution in the form of bio medical waste due to mushrooming healthcare establishments, laboratories and clinics, PCB has also asked all the establishments to abide by the Bio Medical waste (Management and Handling) rules 1998 and 1986 under the Environment (Protection) Act.
As per the bio-medical waste rules, it is the duty of every institution generating bio-medical waste to take essential steps to ensure that the hazardous biological waste is handled without any adverse effect to human health and the environment.
A few days back, officials from PCB had inspected about 91 healthcare establishments in and around the city. The inspecting authorities had chosen both government & private establishments with bed capacities more than 100. In most of the cases, these establishments were not complying with the biomedical waste rules and some of them are not even registered. The board had issued notices to 89 institutions and had asked them to comply with the provisions of the Act.
Last month the PCB had also conducted a workshop emphasizing the need of construction of effluent treatment plant (ETP)/sewage treatment plant (STP) for safe disposal of liquid waste generated from the hospitals, he added.
“It is our duty to protect the environment and public health duly disposing the bio medical waste in a safe manner for better reputation of the institutions concerned - Health Care Establishments i.e. govt & private hospital authorities,” said B.S.S. Prasad, Member Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board.
He explained that there are 15 Common Bio Medical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBMWTFs) operating in the state for treatment and disposal of bio medical waste in a scientific manner and advised the government and private hospital authorities to make use of the facility systematically for safe disposal of the bio medical waste. He also requested the co-ordination of stake holders for successful compliance of Bio Medical Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 1998 and for protecting the healthy environment in the larger interest of public.
“Every occupier of an institution generating, collecting, receiving, storing, transporting, treating, disposing and/or handling bio-medical waste in any other manner, except such occupier of clinics, dispensaries, pathological laboratories, blood banks providing treatment / service to less than 1000 patients per month, shall make an application to the prescribed authority i.e. the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board for grant of authorization,” said Prasad in a statement.
The disputes
While this is the situation, the bulk drug manufacturing association and PCB authorities are at loggerheads with each other. While the bulk drug firms claim that they have installed most sophisticated in-house effluent treatment plants with zero pollution discharges, the PCB is alleging that the bulk drug companies are manufacturing drugs in excess of the permitted quantities.
According to sources in BDMA, the PCB and other regulatory authorities are unnecessarily harassing the pharma companies citing silly reasons and issuing closer notices. “The PCB officials are tying the entire industry under one knot and issuing notices to all the firms without going into the specifics. There may be occasions of small lapses at some places that do not mean that the industry is unmindful of the pollution control norms. The days have changed during the past one decade now. Every small manufacturing firm has installed most sophisticated instruments to ensure zero percent discharge,” said Krishna Reddy, ED, BDMA.
On the other hand the PCB has alleged that bulk drug companies are ignoring the pollution control norms and their units are manufacturing drugs in excess of the permitted quantities. The charges from PCB also include that pharmaceutical firms are responsible for unauthorized manufacture of these drugs which is the main reason for increasing pollution. “Despite permission being taken to manufacture a certain quantity and category of drugs, these units allegedly exceed the prescribed limit, by more than 30 per cent in certain cases,” pointed out a spokes person from PCB.
It is also alleged by the pollution control authorities that the pharma companies are manufacturing excess drug products and in some cases new drugs are also manufactured without taking permission. For production of every specific drug, the pharma companies need to follow certain pollution control norms, but they ignore this and produce new drugs under the guise of old permits.
However, the pharma companies maintain that they have to change their products due to business exigencies, and this is does not increase the pollution levels in the state. They maintain that their Zero Process Liquid Discharge unit takes care of any increase in solid waste in a scientific and technical manner. Pharmaceutical firms claim they use sophisticated treatment facilities to solidify liquid waste through a vaporization process.
In fact, the issue worsened when AP High court ordered PCB to issue closure notices to the polluting pharma industries in the state. It all began with a plea filed in the AP High Court by Maa Telangana Party chief Veera Reddy. Twelve firms including Dr Reddy’s Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Divis Labs, Matrix Labs and Hetero Pharma, appealed against the pollution control board’s order to adhere to permitted quantities.
The issue is now being probed by a panel appointed by the Appellate Authority under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act.