A Stinky Issue! Fish Meal-Oil causes Pollution
“Fish Meal and fish oil industry consumes such large quantities of water and produces large quantities of effluent, malodour, noise, wastewater sludge, emissions of highly polluted air that it has been seriously affecting the health of residents in and around 3 km radius. Transportation of raw materials and waste products, as well as finished products, causes such sickly odour that the clothes you wear cannot be smell-free even after a laundry wash”- Mohammed Kabir-President of District People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
“In DySP Ganapathi’s suicide case, he was not a saint. He has revealed to the citizens his mentality during the Church attacks in 2008 in Mangaluru and his allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. He acted like a hero, along with SI Jayanth Shetty and SP Sathish in mercilessly thrashing Catholics, priests and nuns. How can Christians forget them? While extending our sympathies to Ganapathi’s kith and kin, however, we are of the opinion that only a CBI enquiry will bring out the truth and action should be taken against all the three persons named in his dying declaration, i.e., K J George, Mohanty and Prasad. The judicial enquiry will safeguard the culprits and no justice will come out of the exercise”- PB D’Sa-National VP-PUCL.
Mangaluru: Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Mangalore Press Club, Mohammed Kabir-President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said, “A judgment has been passed by the Green Tribune regarding pollution caused by fish Meal and fish oil industry, and many such firms have been ordered to pay hefty fines for causing pollution. Fish Meal and fish oil industry consumes such large quantities of water and produces large quantities of effluent, malodour, noise, wastewater sludge, emissions of highly polluted air that it has been seriously affecting the health of residents in and around 3 km radius. Transportation of raw materials and waste products, as well as finished products, causes such sickly odour that the clothes you wear cannot be smell-free even after a laundry wash”.
“All these industries occupy government land on lease and not on private lands. The lease was granted only for storing purposes and not for any manufacturing processes. Further, they occupy CRZ area where starting industries is prohibited. Ullal Town Municipal Council had suspended all trade licences on 13 March 2007, yet they have continued the trade without any licence. On 12 June 2007, the Port Officer had issued a letter directing them to close down their operations. On 18 May 2010, the Assistant Commissioner, Mangaluru, passed an order directing the concerned industries to establish common effluent treatment plant, which was not complied with. Further, the industries have also encroached upon the land that was not allotted to them and refused to vacate in spite of issuing a notice by the government on 19 January 2013” added Kabir.
Kabir further said, “In spite of a direction by Pollution Board to install the deodorizer and evaporator to control foul smell on or before 31 October 2014, the respondents failed to install the same. PUCL had been after this serious human rights violation affecting the health of people, especially, women and children, since 2010. After approaching all authorities, we reported the matter to the Green Tribunal in the year 2014, vide application no. 261 and received the final order on 8 July 2016. The Tribunal has levied a penalty on the principle of “Polluter Pays” as under: 8 units are levied Rs 5,00,000 each; 5 units are levied Rs 8,00,000 each; Fish Meal and Fish Oil Manufacturers’ Association has been charged a fine of Rs 25,00,000 payable within 30 days of the order”.
“Asian Fish Meal and Oil Co. has been directed to close down the operations and vacate the place within 30 days as it was set up in September 1991, after the CRZ notification 1991 came into force. The Tribunal has described this as a clear violation of CRZ notification 1991. Hence it has ordered the closure. The other units have been shown little leniency as they were set up before 1987, with directions to comply with all the rules and regulations of the Pollution Board. In fact, all those units have undertaken modernization of their plants, which is to be monitored by the Pollution Board ” added Kabir.
Also speaking during the press meet. PB D’Sa-National VP of PUCL regarding the recent suicides by DySPs Ganapathi and Kallapa Handibag said, “Regarding these suicides, we must express our opinion as the Police Department is the most corrupt department, which is at the forefront of violating human rights. We primarily hold the politicians responsible for this state of affairs in the Police Department since politicians collect huge sums of money to recruit police officers. Both UPSC and KPSC are the most corrupt departments in the country. Police officers openly announce that they have paid lakhs of rupees to get selected.”
D’Sa further said, “Over the years, they have adjusted themselves to the atmosphere and perfected collaboration with politicians to loot the citizens. They blindly obey the politicians and feed them as per their demands. In Ganapathi’s case, he was not a saint. He has revealed to the citizens his mentality during the Church attacks in 2008 in Mangaluru and his allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. Justice M F Saldanha (Rtd.) has revealed in his report the role of Ganapathi, Jayanth Shetty and Supt. of Police, Sathish.
A leader of Bajrang Dal then had said that these police officers acted on the orders of their bosses and approval of the BJP government. However, we are of the opinion that only a CBI enquiry will bring out the truth and action should be taken against all the three persons named in his dying declaration, i.e., K J George, Mohanty and Prasad. Judicial enquiry will safeguard the culprits and no justice will come out of the exercise. Let the investigation bring out the truth and justice to this case – just DySP Ganapathi’s statement to the TV channel will not serve the purpose”.
Brig. CA D’Souza- Vice President, Bertram Pinto- Treasurer and Augustine Rodrigues- Secretary of the District PUCL were also on the dais during the press meet.