Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), on Thursday, served a notice on Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station (KTPS) to immediately stop disposing and dumping ash slurry into Nandgaon ash pond.

This move is all set to give a huge relief to residents of Nandgaon, located 40 kilometres away from Khaperkheda in Nagpur district.

For months now, the local residents along with Zilla Parishad members from Nandgaon have been protesting against the illegal dumping of ash slurry in their farmlands, which is in complete violation of all environmental rules. Fly ash was also being dumped without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from local residents.

Meanwhile, in a parallel development, Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray is also slated to visit Nagpur where he will also be undertaking a site visit to the thermal power stations around Koradi-Khaperkheda soon to assess pollution concerns.

According to the Direction Notice issued by MPCB to the Chief Engineer KTPS, the MPCB had received various complaints regarding disposal of ash slurry into Nandgaon ash pond without permission or without providing any precautionary measures, resulting in water and air pollution in the vicinity, which amounts to a violation of various environment norms.

“Accordingly, MPCB inspected the Nandgaon ash pond and verified the disposal of ash slurry in the Nandgaon ash pond without providing any pollution control arrangements. Now, in view of the above, KTPS is hereby directed to comply with the following directions. It also stated to comply with fly ash

notification for utilisation of fly ash.

The notice also warned the KTPS Chief Engineer that in case there was a failure to comply with aforesaid directions, the board would have no option left but to issue appropriate legal action against the power station.

Affected villagers had requested the MPCB, Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MahaGenco) as well as Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray to curb the disposal of harmful pollutants keeping in mind the deteriorating health of local residents affected by pollution.

Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, in a recent meeting said, “The safety and security of citizens of Maharashtra is our primary concern and if any amount of pollution is impacting them, we will ensure abatement at the earliest. Through successive review meetings with MPCB, MAHAGENCO, representatives of the State Power Ministry and researchers, we identified, deliberated and restricted further pollution from affecting local residents around Nandgaon due to fly ash deposition from the Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station.”

“The ash slurry was destroying our farms, polluting our water bodies, drinking water and having severe health impact and the fly ash was spreading all across causing air pollution,” said Sonali Manoj Varkhade, Sarpanch of the village.

“MahaGenco’s commercial interest needs to take a back seat now. Acquiring land to pollute and build their own assets at the cost of people’s lives and livelihoods must stop. We will keep an eye on the ground and keep reporting the ground realities to the Environment Minister and MPCB,” said Leena Budhe of Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD), who highlighted the issue of fly ash through a report ‘Polluted Power: How Koradi And Khaperkheda Thermal Power Stations Are Impacting The Environment’ with the help of Manthan Adhyayan Kendra and ASAR.

MahaGenco is transporting the ash slurry through pipeline which is about 20 kilometers

long and crosses Kanhan and Pench rivers. Environmental clearance is also not obtained for pipeline and ash pond of 750 acres. Similarly, MahaGenco have not obtained permission from MPCB for laying these pipelines. The ash line bursts and leaks very often due to that rivers are polluted.