Closure notice to 24 seafood processing units

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 4: The Kerala State Pollution Control Board has issued closure notice to 24 seafood export-related industrial units in the Aroor-Chandiroor area of Alappuzha district for not following the Board's guidelines for pollution control.

''Following a High Court order, based on a PIL that prawn processing units in the area are releasing large quantity of effluents into backwaters, we have inspected about 50 units and found that 24 of them were not following the guidelines, Board Chairman G Raja Mohan told sources.

He said the Board had done nothing illegal and it was only executing the High Court order.

However, Seafood Exporters' Association of India Secretary Santo Joseph denied the charges that the sea food units were discharging effluents into the backwaters violating the Board's guidelines. He claimed that these units had been strictly adhering to the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board in this regard.

The units were not discharging effluents as they were not using chemicals for prawn processing. ''If we have used chemicals our products would have been rejected in the international market,'' he said.

Talking to sources over phone from Kochi, Mr Joseph claimed water released by the units to the backwaters contained bio-nutrients only, which had helped in increasing the fish wealth in the area.

He said even though the bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) stipulated by the Central Pollution Control Board was 30 for the sea food industries, the effluents from the units were much less than that.

Hence the State Pollution Control Board could file an affidavit in the High Court pointing out the Central Pollution Board's guidelines in this regard, Mr Joseph said.

He said if the State Pollution Control Board did not take appropriate decisions in this regard, it would adversely affect the livelihood of a large number of workers in the seafood industry.

About 4,500 workers were directly employed and double of it indirectly in 100 sea food units in the area. Besides, around 170 prawn peeling units also operating with 150 workers in each unit.

Mr Joseph said the seafood units in the area had formed a society named the Seafood Exporters' Welfare Society'' to set up a common effluent treatment plant at Aroor at a cost of Rs 20 crore and had purchased 3.14 acres of land for the purpose.

Seventy-five per cent of the total cost of the plant could be met by grant under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme of the Union Governmnt. The scheme had been submitted to the State Government for getting clearance from the Centre. The Plant could be commissioned within 18 months after getting the clearance, Mr Joseph said.

UNI