Dombivli's Maharashtra Pollution Control Board unit collects Rs 20 lakh from 72 industrial units

Dombivli is known for air pollution caused by various industries near the MIDC belt. Though the MPCB (Maharashtra Pollution Control Board)has to take action against the pollutant, companies somehow manage to spring back to action. However, this time the MPCB not only served closure notices to the repeated offenders, but even collected Rs20 lakh from them, for violation of MPCB norms.

In January, there was acid/green rain in Dombivli, which once again brought the attention of everyone to the tremendous pollution in the city. There are over 600 industrial units in Dombivli and most of them contribute to pollution due to non-compliance of the pollution control norms.

In one such instance, 72 companies were given closure notices in February 2014. These companies, however, started on conditional basis. "When we checked them, we found that there were certain conditions laid by MPCB, which were partly not fulfilled," said Nitin Shinde, regional officer, MPCB, Kalyan. "Hence, we have forfeited their bank guarantee, which comes to Rs 20 lakh," said Shinde.