Dec. 8: The dust is finally settling on the row between cement companies and residents over pollution in the industrial township of Umrangsu.
After relentless protests from various organisations, the management of Vinay Cements Ltd — one of the cement factories in the township — has embarked on a campaign to minimise the level of pollution.
A representative of Vinay Cements Ltd said the company had spent Rs 1.2 crore on importing dust-control technology from the US to reduce pollution. “We are pleased with the results,” he added.
The project was commissioned on an experimental basis a few weeks ago.
“We expect the level of pollution to go down further by December 31,” the company official said.
A conglomerate of citizens’ groups had launched an agitation in February, claiming that air pollution caused by cement factories in the hill township had resulted in several deaths.
Backed by the All Dimasa Students’ Union, they floated an open platform — Action Committee for Cement Dust-cum-Social Welfare Forum — and appealed to the factory owners to find a solution at the earliest. The committee enforced a 24-hour Umrangsu bandh on June 16.
An economic blockade was planned for this month if Vinay Cements Ltd did not reduce the quantum of dust emanating from its plant.
Umrangsu, the bulwark of the hill district’s economy, had three cement factories until Umrangsu Cement Factory downed shutters two years ago. The other two factories produce 500 tonnes of cement everyday.
Rituraj Borua, senior HRD manager of Vinay Cements Ltd, claimed the company had always been conscious of the need to check air pollution.
“Going by the guidelines set by the Pollution Control Board, the maximum permissible limit for emission of lime dust is 150 micro gram per cubic metre. At VCL, the emission is much lower than that,” Borua said.
Another company executive said the new paper-bag technology that was being used now could silence anti-pollution protesters for good.
“We had made two previous attempts to check pollution. The heat exchanger method, commissioned in 1996, did not give us the desired result. The paper bag method was launched in 1998 but the result was again not satisfactory because the bags used were of poor quality. If everything goes well, we will be able to solve the decade-old problem with the new, improved technology.”
