Polluting units lose power in Himachal

Eight top industrial units in Himachal Pradesh's booming industrial zone will have no power from Thursday, while 122 other units have been served notices for polluting a nearby river.

This action has been taken by the state pollution control board after thousands of fish died in the Sarsa river which flows at the edge of the Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh industrial area, some 120 km from here.

"Eight units will lose their electricity while 122 others have been served notices to explain," said Chetan Joshi, an official of the pollution control board office at Baddi.

"These polluters include five pesticide units, two textile mills and one paper mill," he said.

"This action was taken after a team of experts of the state pollution control board found in its report that these units had been polluting the river with toxic wastes which led to the death of a large number of fish on June 14," he said.

The state pollution control board has made it compulsory for industrial units in Baddi-Barotiwala and Nalagarh to treat industrial effluents before it enters the Sarsa river as it has led to several fish kills several times in the past few years.