Odisha govt shuts down two IMFA mines over flouting of pollution norms

State officials had inspected the chromite mines at Sukinda on March 23

The Odisha government has shut down two chromite mines of India Metals and Ferroalloys, a leading ferroalloys producer of the country, on the ground of non-compliance of pollution control norms.

While consent to operate (CTO) granted to the mines by the OSPCB was set to expire in March 2021, the sudden move to revoke it, based on an inspection of a pollution watchdog team, has obviously led to speculations of a political overtone to the action.

Incidentally, IMFA is promoted by the family of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP, Baijayant Panda, who has fallen out of favour with chief minister Naveen Patnaik following his recent criticism of the functioning of the party. Panda had also called for retrospection on the part of the party after a lacklustre performance in the recent panchayat elections in the state.

Soon after Panda, who is also the vice-chairman of the company, went public about the ills afflicting the party, the Odisha Sate Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) had slapped notices on two mines of IMFA at Kaliapani in Sukinda valley for violation of pollution control norms.

Meanwhile, after considering the company's response to the notice, the OSPCB has revoked its consent to operate certificate granted to the mines. "The response filed by the company to the notices was found to be inadequate. We have called them for a personal hearing on May 15," said Debidutta Biswal, member secretary, OSPCB.

OSPCB had inspected IMFA's chromite mines at Sukinda on March 23. While the inspecting team had expressed satisfaction with more than 16 parameters, out of a total of 24, required to grant consent, it had raised some objection with regard to the condition of road, sprinkler frequency and the wheel-washing of trucks.

"While these are very innocuous conditions, given that mining roads develop pots holes and ruts, the company has already taken action to comply with all pollution control norms", said a company official.

IMFA is India's largest fully-integrated producer of ferroalloys with an installed capacity of 187 MVA, backed by a captive power generation capacity of 258 MW . The two mines, which have been shut down, measure 116.76 hectares and 73.77 hectares, respectively, and used to produce over 0.8 million tonnes of chrome ore per annum.

The company required over 50,000 tonnes of chrome ore per month to feed its two plants located at Choudwar and Therubali. At present, it has a stock of about 20,000 tonnes that will barely be enough to run the plants for two weeks. "After that the company will be forced to close the plants which will jeopardise the jobs of the 5,000 workers engaged at the plants and mining sites," said a source.