A day after the Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh directed the concerned agencies to take action against offenders in the matter of the leakage of molasses into the Beas river, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) on Thursday said that Sugar Mill cannot restart any process without its approval.

The PPCB presented its report before the CM on Thursday which was discussed in detail with the authorities of concerned departments.

In the report, PPCB has mentioned that an environment catastrophe of a very high level has occurred due to the spillage of molasses from the Mill into river Beas leading to killing of large number of fishes and other aquatic life of various species.

The Beas river is the only living river of Punjab and any environmental damage to this river has to be viewed very seriously by the state and the society.”Damage to river Beas and its flora and fauna has been immense and the ecological degradation caused by the incident shall take years to regenerate the ecology of the river.

It is a fact that spillage of molasses has happened because the Mill management has not paid required attention for the safety of the installation of the Mill as a result the incident has happened with large-scale environmental proportions,” PPCB Chairman KS Pannu said in the
report.

Any pressure or any circumstances to crush more sugar cane than the capacity of the Sugar Mill fixed does not justify the claim of the management to store additional molasses in an unscientific manner, especially when the mill is situated in a very sensitive zone.

The PPCB has submitted that the mill was sealed on 17 May under Section 33 A of water ( Prevention and control of Pollution) Act 1974. The report also states that Mill will not restart any process unless all necessary pollution control measures are taken.

It has been recommended that Mill shall not store molasses in tanks otherthan the mild steel tanks with cooling arrangements, recirculation, proper venting, arrangement of adding anti foam or Biocide which shall be of sufficient capacity and location as per the Mill will obtain necessary approval from the Department of Excise and Taxation for Generation, Storage and Sale of molasses as per East Punjab Molasses (Control Act), 1948 and the industry shall take necessary approval from the Director of Factories for the compliance of the provisions of Factories Act, 1948, the report said.