HimVani

Baddi: Concerned over non-compliance of environment safety norms in the Baddi-Barotiwala industrial belt, the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board has now served notices to at least 15 units for spreading pollution by burning rice husk in industrial boilers. They have been asked to switch over to  fuels like furnace oil, diesel or petrol for all boiler operations within a month.
These units, which comprise textile and paper mills, have been directed to submit an action plan about switchover to an alternative fuel. The board had received complaints that ash was being thrown either in water bodies or in the fields. It may be remembered that there have been several instances of thousands of fish dying in streams flowing through the area.
Though the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority (BBNDA) had earmarked a site in the Katha industrial area to dump ash, it has been of little use. Villagers complain that the dumped ash spreads over the whole area swept by wind.
The units served notices included Winsome Textiles, Bhandari Deepak Industries, Nirmal Spinning Mill, Auro Dying and Auro Textiles, Birla Textiles, Shri Ganesh fats, Haripur Paper Mills, C.M.Fibres, Raj Industries, Siddhartha Group of Spinning Mills, Rupana Paper Mill, Sebbacuss Distillery and Sara Textiles.