Pondy Minister gets tough on polluting industries

Welfare and Environment Minister of Puducherry M Kandasamy on Tuesday said the territorial government would spare no industries polluting the environment and drawing groundwater in excess.

Talking to presspersons here after a surprise visit to an oil factory here, he said the unit was found to be damaging the environment by discharging industrial effluent without treatment.

He said the factory had also been defaulting payment of power tariff for years together and had not renewed for nearly 10 years the licence relating to the environment obtained from the Department of Science Technology and Environment.

On an on-the-spot order of the Minister, the electricity department disconnected power supply to the factory.

Also, he said the unit had installed a couple of borewells without proper permission.

Kandasamy who was accompanied by the ruling Congress legislator Theepanjan and officials of Labour and Environment Departments visited the industrial estate following complaints from villagers said that the government would spare no industry damaging the environment and defaulting on payment of power tariff.