Transportation of coal by trains, ash by trucks and use of sea water illegal'

[email protected] (CD Network)
March 17, 2011

UPCL

Udupi, March 17: Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi has denied to grant the amendment to the environment clearance to Udupi Power Corporation to transport coal by railway, ash by trucks and the use of sea water. This means transportation of coal by trains, ash by trucks and the use of sea water for the UPCL project is totally illegal.

Executive President of Jana Jagruthi Samithi Nandikur Balakrishna Shetty in a press release said that during the end of last year the UPCL approached the Ministry for the amendment to the Environment Clearance dated 20th March 1997 although it has been already using Konkan Railway for transportation of coal from NMPT to project site, trucks for transportation of ash from the plant to Santhur dumping area and sea water for cooling and ash mixing purposes without authority since early 2010.

The Environmental Clearance stipulates transportation of coal by closed conveyor system with dust suppression mechanism, transportation of ash by pneumatic system through pipelines to the dumping area and desalinated water for the plant, he said.

Pneumatic technology is nothing new and UPCL, which is publicly boasting of state of the art technology in the plant should not have adapted the cheaper and environmentally damaging method.

The Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry in its 15th Meeting on Jan 10 this year had recommended the amendment without considering all the facts or site visit. The Samithi had raised strong objection to the Chairman of the Committee

VP Raja to review its recommendation. The Samithi reminded EAC that the Ministry had already carried out the impact assessment of transportation of coal by trains and had even filed an affidavit before the Honorable High Court of Karnataka in the case of Maneka Gandhi and Janajagrithi Samithi v/s Congentrix in Feb 1997 stating that after considering the environmental implications it had stipulated closed conveyor for transportation of coal from harbor to the project site and ash from the plant to the dumping area.

The Samithi also reminded the Ministry of the soil vulnerability in the area and potential contamination of the surface as well as the underground water resources and the consequent threat to human health and to crop due to dumping of fly ash and use of sea water by the project.

Upon receiving the objection by the Samithi, the EAC decided to withheld the recommendation. The EAC meeting held on Mar 14 and 15 refrained from granting the amendment.

It is absolutely clear that UPCL has been violating the terms of the Environmental Clearance. “The Ministry of Environment & Forest should seriously consider shutting down the plant permanently and invoke Public Liability Insurance Act for compensating to all those affected by pollution”, said Samithi President Balakrishna Shetty. He urged the Konkan Railway to stop transporting the coal by its goods trains in the absence of the amendment and the Chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board as well as the District authorities to prevent the use of trucks for ash dumping and the pumping of the sea water.


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News Network
June 20,2020

Udupi, Jun 20: The wife and daughter of a 54-year-old man who succumbed to Covid-19, tested positive for the virus on Saturday.

Sources said that the family returned to Udupi on June 18 and the man died the same day while his wife and daughter tested positive today.

The man and his family had arrived at their house in Thekkatte on Thursday, June 18 afternoon. Later in the day, the man died. He was suffering from jaundice and had arrived from Mumbai in the state of illness.

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News Network
April 2,2020

Udupi, Apr 2: The Udupi Administration has given its nod to lift and transport watermelons, pineapples, papaya and Mattu Gulla after growers in the district complained that their produce will go waste and start rotting due to the lockdown on account of COVID-19.

In statement issued here on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha said that the administration has already held a meeting with wholesale fruit merchants registered with the Agriculture Marketing Produce Committee (APMC).

It has directed these merchants to purchase 35 tonnes of pineapples, 55 tonnes of watermelons and 5,000 bunches of bananas from growers and sell them within the district and also send them to other districts. Such transportation has been exempted from prohibitory orders, he said.

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News Network
April 19,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 19: Former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday thanked Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa for backing his family regarding his son Nikhil s wedding, which drew flak for allegedly violating lockdown norms.

Asserting that social distancing was maintained during the wedding, the JD(S) leader in a series of tweets hit out at those accusing his family of violating lockdown norms, by stating that they were doing it out of "political hate".

"Despite maintaining social distancing and following rules during Nikhil's marriage, there are discussion that norms were not followed.

Because of political hate, poisonous comments are being made about an auspicious event, but Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa by rejecting all this is standing by the truth," Kumaraswamy said in a tweet in Kannada.

He said, "heartfelt thanks to Yediyurappa for his statement that a big political family in the state has conducted the marriage ceremony in a simple way."

Nikhil, the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, entered wedlock on Friday at a Bidadi farmhouse with Revathi, the grandniece of former Congress minister M Krishnappa.

On the day of the marriage several posts on social media, also media reports had criticised the Gowda family for violating locdown norms and social distancing during the event.

Coming to the defence of Gowda family, Yediyurappa in response to a question on Saturday told reporters "They (family) had all the permissions and the event was held in a simple fashion. There's no need to discuss this.

"Despite having many relatives, they stuck to the limitations. For this, I congratulate them," he had said.

Stating that lockdown rules were followed during Nikhil's marriage, Kumaraswamy said, "By looking for politics in Nikhil's marriage, certain faulty minds on social media are spewing venom that is in their mind."

Gowda family had scaled down Nikhil's wedding, which was earlier planned in a 95-acre land near Ramanagara with a lavish set, with lakhs of party workers and well-wishers in attendance, followed by a grand reception in Bengaluru.

Nikhil has acted in couple of Kannada films in the lead role.

He had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the party bastion of Mandya and had lost against multilingual actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent candidate supported by BJP, in a bitterly contested polls.

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