The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) is all set to serve notices to be served on pharmaceutical companies for violating pollution control norms. TNCB insists on having common effluent treatment plants (CETs) rather than have individual treatment plants. According to TNPCB sources, the notices would be served on pharmaceutical companies very shortly. This is for the fourth time in the last two years that the TNPCB is readying the notice insisting on CETs. Last year and also in 2001, the TNPCB had served notices on pharmaceutical companies to have CETs which were replied with non-refusal by the companies.

The notice to be served states that “wherever there are more than two pharmaceutical companies in a location a CET is a requirement as per TNPCB norms thereby helping in reducing pollution of air, soil and water. Further, it is brought to the notice of the pharmaceutical companies that individual efforts have not brought the requisite results in pollution control and hence CETs would be a viable option in such cases”. The notice does not mention how the companies are to raise the resources for having CETs but maintains that “wherever possible help from the TNPCB could be sought”.

The notice is basically directed at the two locations viz, the Alathur Pharmaceutical Complex near Chennai and the SIDCO Complex at Cuddalore, which are clustered with pharmaceutical companies including bulk drug manufacturers. Other centres mainly targeted are the SIDCO estate in Gummidipoondi, near Chennai, and the Industrial Estate at Kakkalur, in Thiruvallur district which too have a sprinkling of pharmaceutical companies. The Alathur Pharmaceutical Complex is the only exclusive complex for pharmaceutical companies while the SIDCO Complex houses pharmaceutical companies along with other companies manufacturing chemicals.

It can be recalled the Alathur Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association (APMA) in 2001 had replied, on a notice served on it, that it was impossible to have CETs in the complex because of the difference in nature of effluents generated, and that the in-house treatment plant set up by individual companies served the purpose of pollution control on soil, water and air. APMA had been repeatedly countering TNPCB's claim that effective pollution control was not being done, by claiming that the same was being done.