
According to a recent report, a show cause notice has been served to the Utkal Alumina’s Baphlimali Bauxite Mine for cancellation of mining lease for allegedly failing to comply with environmental norms.

As per the report, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has served a show cause notice on the bauxite mining asking for a reply from its director with 15 days as to why the consent granted for mining should not be revoked. Sources said Utkal Alumina International Limited is operating the mine at Paikkupakhal in Rayagada district over a leasehold area of 1,388.74 hectare.
SPCB officials detected discrepancies in environmental compliances when they had gone for inspecting the mine on January 16 and January 17.
The notice was served to the mine on February 12, stating that fugitive dust emission was found from the crushing plant and heavy fugitive emission from haulage road due to plying of vehicles.
SPCB claimed that the PM10 (particulate matter 10 micrometer or less in diameter) concentration was higher than the prescribed norm at all the locations including the roof of administration building and near crusher during monitoring of ambient air quality. SPCB also claimed that the mining unit could not complete the installation of three Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations with data transfer facility, which was supposed to be done by September last year.
The inspection also found the absence of collection system of runoff water at certain places of the mine, due to which the agricultural fields and water quality of streams at the foothill were possibly affected.
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