The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) has written to Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan seeking removal of the moratorium on industrial investments in Haldia township — located nearly 120 km from the city.

There has been a ban on new investments in the industrial township indefinitely from March 2012, after the Centre identified it as a highly polluting area.

Along with Haldia, two other industrial clusters of the State — Assansol and Howrah — have been identified as critically polluted. The comprehensive environmental pollution index (CEPI) in these three townships was above 70 on a scale of 0 to 100, as per a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Fresh study

According to the chamber’s President Kallol Datta, the CEPI was derived “several years ago” at the “then prevailing pollution levels” across various industrial clusters. However, a fresh study by the Central Pollution Control Board has assessed CEPI levels (pollution) at Haldia to be well below the threshold limit of 70.

The letter to the minister, written on November 16, also maintains that the latest report of the CPCB has been tabled to Natarajan’s predecessor, Jairam Ramesh, who had agreed to review the ban.

The Chamber has also urged the minister to make public the recent findings of CPCB with regard to pollution levels at Haldia.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already expressed her willingness to set up a committee headed by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group chairman, Sanjiv Goenka, to take up the issue of ban on investments in Haldia.

abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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