Raipur, Oct 28 (IANS) The Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board Wednesday served notices to 15 steel making units ion the state for defying pollution control norms.
These small scale industries, located at Urla, Siltara and Borjhara industrial areas on the outskirts of Raipur, have not adopted pollution control measures and are not using electro-static precipitator (ESP) — an air pollution control device — during night period, officials said.

“We have asked them to explain in detail why they don’t comply with the pollution control norms. If the explanations are not satisfactory, we will order for disconnecting their power supply,” a senior environment board official told IANS.

According to government officials, some 145 units in the industrial areas close to Raipur are not using pollution control equipment.

The Urla, Siltara and Borjhara areas near the National Highway (NH) 200 on the Raipur-Bilaspur road are home to 43 sponge iron plants and some 100 rolling mills and ferro-alloy units.

Experts claim that about one million people of Raipur and its 40 surrounding villages are suffering from serious respiratory diseases and skin cancer due to exposure to polluted air, water and dust-mixed grain and vegetables.