PRESS RELEASE: 06 October 2003
KBA PROTEST ENTERS WEST COAST PAPER MILLS
Meet Shareholders at Annual General Meeting
In a dramatic move, Kali Bachao Andolan led a protest into the sprawling campus of the West Coast Paper Mills (WCPM) in Dandeli, on 30 September, and met with the shareholders of the company. A detailed account of this significant effort is online at:
The Annual General Meeting with Shareholders is an important day of accountability for any public company. For decades, the WCPM has suppressed evidence of the serious pollution that it is causing to the Kali River by discharging untreated trade effluents. Many efforts to force the company to follow legally required environmental norms has been in vain aided by lax regulation.
Villagers from Kariampalli, worst affected by recent pollution by WCPM, along with representatives of Environment Support Group, Parisara Samrakshana Kendra, Alternative Law Forum and Samvada, rallied through the Dandeli town and entered the WCPM campus in time for the Annual General Meeting on the 30th afternoon.
Heavy security and the presence of a large posse' of police did not deter the campaigners in their peaceful entry to the AGM, deep inside the campus. Once there, shareholders were met with individually and pressed to hold their company leadership accountable for their lax environmental management and criminal neglect of affected communities.
The day was also significant, as it marked the closure of the deadline of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board for WCPM to install a secondary effluent treatment plant. When senior managers were pressed to show the plant, they deterred only to admit that it was unlikely that it would be ready any time soon.
Clearly caught off guard, and deeply embarrassed, the Mr. Chandak, Executive Director of WCPM, offered to meet with a key 'leaders' of Kali Bachao Andolan. He was told that he must meet all, or none would meet him. Late in the evening he complied with this demand, and the protestors took their message into the company's Boardroom. Along with Mr. Chandak, all of his senior staff was present.
In over two hours of deliberations that followed, the following statements were
made:
Leo Saldanha, speaking for KBA and the affected villagers, charged the company with:
§ Willful negligence causing serious pollution of the Kali River, and its ecology. Also that of extracting water from Kali River far in excess of consented quantities, by tampering with water meters, both at the intake and discharge points.
§ Causing grievous injury and harm to villagers downstream of the effluent discharge point.
§ Criminal neglect of villagers affected by the pollution incident on 29/30 June 2003. Also of not providing drinking water facilities despite the pollution of surface and underground aquifers being reported to be serious for a decade
now.
§ Lax approach to statutory warnings requiring the company to install a state of the art effluent treatment plant. This involved violation of a key direction requiring the treatment plant to be ready by 30 September. Further, carelessly discharging fly ash from the power plant, including in a local college campus.
§ Gross violation of production limits set, as the company was on record that
it was producing more than twice the consented quantity. This resulted in more
fresh water intake, and doubling of pollution, with consequent adverse impacts
on public health and environment.
§ The company has wrongly claimed that this increase in production will not increase
the pollution load, in an attempt to dodge compliance with a full environmental review requiring public involvement. The past five years' environmental compliance reports filed by the company with the Karnataka Pollution Control Board has too many factual inaccuracies and is a copy-paste job across the years. It appears the regulatory authority has colluded with the company by not examining such details and taking appropriate action.
§ Behaving in a manner as to threaten the local communities with dire action if they questioned the company's errant behaviour.
He was also informed that Central Pollution Control Board and Ministry of Environment and Forests had on investigation found the pollution of the river to be extremely serious. Further, that KBA had brief the Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. S. M. Krishna, Karnataka Industries Minister and Dandeli MLA Mr. R. V. Deshpande and Chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Mr. J. Alexander on this continuing violation by the company.
Mr. Chandak had little to offer in explanation. He was also unable to deny any of these charges. When the local villagers presented to him how difficult their
life had become because of his company's utter lack of responsibility, he was constrained to offer some relief. Consequently WCPM Executive Director Chandak
made the following commitments:
1. WCPM will undertake the expenses of providing drinking water to all villages affected by pollution of Kali due to discharge of effluents.
2. WCPM will invest in a mobile medical unit to provide immediate health relief to affected villages.
3. WCPM will accept monetary claims from all affected families. These claims would include cost of loss of income and livelihood due to disease, death and disease of cattle and failure of crops.
4. One year's livelihood support would be extended on claim to Jahnu, a Gowli who suffered acute renal failure, and also his sister-in-law, who lost an new
born infant, due to pollution from WCPM.
Mr. Chandak also confirmed that the production process would be modernized to make it elemental-chlorine free, but not soon.
This process marks an important departure in the nature of events in Dandeli. For long local people have suffered enormously from the pollution as they were
repeatedly threatened with job losses if WCPM was pressurized to be environmentally responsible. The apparent motive was to present WCPM as the only economic option, and that implementing required pollution control technology would force losses
on the company. To suffer in silence, despite a harsh existence, provided livelihood in the least. With this protest, local people have now been shown the way ahead in negotiating a better deal for themselves and those who work in this large paper mill. Should WCPM fully comply with law and implement all environmental
measures, as is clearly possible given its large cash reserves (about Rs. 150 crores in the least), then the serious pollution that it is causing for decades
should be a thing of the past. For this a very strong regulatory regime is immediately required.
Consequently, we demand that the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board should immediately take cognizance of the non-compliance of the 30 September deadline for installing an effluent treatment plant, as per relevant provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act. Unless this is done, it would
be imperative that the Board would be held responsible for inaction along with WCPM.
Sd/-
Bhargavi S. Rao
Issued by Environment Support Group on behalf of Kali Bachao Andolan
For Photographs of the protest please contact Deepashree or Rajmohan at ESG.
For more information and past releases of Kali Bachao Andolan please check:
http://narmada.org/related.issues/kali Leo F. Saldanha
Environment Support Group
S-3, Rajashree Apts.
18/57, 1st Main, SRK Gardens
Bannerghatta Road, Jayanagar
Bangalore 560041
Tel: 91-80-6341977/6534364
Fax: 91-80-6341977
Email:
esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Web: www.esgindia.org
Pandurang Hegde
Parisara Samrakshana Kendra
Hulemalgi Building,
Chowkimath
Sirsi,
Uttara Kannada Dt. 581401
Tel: 91-8384-425139/425039
Fax: 91-8384-4435450/427839
Email:
appiko@sancharnet.in Bhoga Nanjunda
CIEDS, No.33-1/9, Thyagaraj Layout, ( Opp. Patrol Bunk)
Jai Bharathi Nagar,
Maruthi Seva nagar, Bangalore560 033. (Opp. Ex-Mayor Ms. Prema Kariyappa's house);
Tel: 5492774 / 779 / 5492783.
Email:
awhrci@vsnl.com