Five units of Vedanta’s power plants shut in Odisha

Jharsuguda: The Jharsuguda district administration this evening sealed five units of Vedanta Aluminium Limited’s (VAL) power plants in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district.

The units were sealed by the district administration following directions of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) for VAL’s breach of agreement with it and violation of sections 21 and 32 (A) of Air Pollution Act 1981 and sections 25 and 33 (A) of Water Pollution Act 1974.

On orders from District Collector Bibhuti Bhusan Patnaik, Sub Collector Ajay Jena closed and sealed three units of VAL’s power plant no.2 and two units of power plant no.3 at Bhurkamunda.

Notably, two units out of VAL’s four-unit 600 MW capacity Integrated Power Plant (IPP) and three units out of VAL’s nine-unit 135 MW capacity Captive Power Plant (CPP) were closed and sealed by the district administration in presence VAL Power Plant chief Jayakrushna Mohanty, Regional Officer of OSPCB Niranjan Mallick and SDPO Purushottam Sethy.

The pollution watchdog’s order came after hundreds of acres of farmlands mainly paddy fields with standing crops were inundated with fly ash slurry following an 800 meters breach in the embankment of ash pond no.2 of the captive power plant of VAL at Katikela on August 28 evening.

The incident had led to severe resentment in the area as locals demanding compensation had locked the main gate of VAL.

Alleging negligence on the part of the VAL management, Jharsuguda Collector Bibhuti Bhusan Patnaik had directed the regional office of OSPCB to file a case against the erring company.