NGO to oppose Centre's move to curb fly ash utilisation

New Delhi, May 31 (UNI) A Vijaywada-based NGO involved in research on solid waste disposal activities will oppose the move of the Ministry of Environment and Forests to impede availability of fly ash, a waste product used in all the thermal power units of the country.

Currently, the fly ash through an order of the Supreme Court is allowed to be lifted by the users since 1999 free of cost for various construction material producers.

The country was still accumulating 75 million tonnes of fly ash considered as a dangerous polluting material harmful for the environment. This material is used as an additive material in buildings to adhere to eco-friendly principles.

If this waste material is permitted to be disposed off through a competitive bidding, than this may add up to the revenue of thermal plants, but the agenda of cent per cent fly ash utilisation will remain unfulfilled and there is a 'hidden agenda' behind the move, Mr Kalidas, Director of the NGO, Institute for Solid Water Research and Ecological balance told newspersons here.

He said the Ministry's move to dispose the fly ash through competitive bidding would be counter-productive to the agenda of fly ash utilisation, besides allowing mafias in the area without addressing the problem of accumulation. In the absence of avenues of fly ash utilisation, it would be impossible and impractical for any thermal plan to have land for three months of fly ash disposal which comes to around 5.4 lakh tonnes for every 1000 mw power plant. This move will reverse the established principle -- whereby the 'polluter' pays, he said.

''It is crazy for any government to draft notification knowing fully well the impractibility of implementation,'' Mr Das who holds a patent for bringing down the costs of making bricks and other construction materials, said.

He also warned it was 'blatantly erronous' to bring bottom ash and pond ash under fly ash category, saying it would lead to indiscriminate adulteration of cement, bringing disrepute to portland pozzolan cement as it happened in 1980s.

The thermal plants were enthused by the Ministry of Environment Forests' move. The units should realise that the move is unhealthy and would endanger the land and sub-soil waters and the lives of millions of people living around the units, Mr Das added.

UNI