New Indian Express
Wednesday December 14 2005
CUDDALORE: An NGO here has planned to move the Environmental Appellate Authority at New Delhi, to withdraw the sanction accorded by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for establishing a multi-crore PVC plant in the coastal town.
Speaking to this website’s newspaper, General Secretary of the District Environmental Protection Organisation for Right Tackling (DEPORT), L Arasan, said that the Ministry had given the nod to one Chemplast Sanmar Ltd for establishing a Rs 500 crore PVC plant on November 28.
The functioning of the unit would pose a grave danger to the people residing in the coastal town and nearby hamlets, he said. The proposed plant would use toxic substances, including carcinogenic vinyl chloride monomer, as raw material and that would release toxic gases, including dioxins and furans, Arasan said.
Moreover, the Plant is also expected to set up a rocket fuel manufacturing unit at the SIPCOT industrial complex phase-II, he said. He alleged that the Ministry had cleared the proposal based on an outdated environmental impact assessment report prepared way back in 1999.
The Firm had proposed to set up the unit in SIPCOT in 2002 and sought public opinion in the same year. Following widespread resentment from various quarters, the firm withdrew the proposal and established a PVC unit in Krishanapattnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Then it had revived the proposal and decided to establish the unit in SIPCOT in April 2005. The Tamil Nadu Government had also issued a no-objection certificate to the firm for establishing the unit, he said.