Maheshtala Councillor’s unit cleared by WBPCB for manufacturing green fireworks

West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has given clearance to a unit from Maheshtala in south 24 parganas, M T Industries, to manufacture green fireworks in late September which is owned by a local Trinamul councillor. The unit, so far, is the only one being cleared by the green regulatory body.

The permission was provided about two weeks prior to October 13, when, based on the information provided by state board officials, state environment minister Manas Bhunia claimed that there was no green cracker manufacturing unit in Bengal.

“There is not a single green fireworks unit in the state till now” said state environment minister Manas Bhunia on Oct 13, flanked by state board officials who stated “none has applied so far”. “We have 14 valid fireworks units in the state. Already we have intimated them that only green fireworks can be manufactured in the state, none has so far applied to us” pointed out a senior board official.

“Please be sure that we will take appropriate corrective measures if there was anything wrong” said Bhuiya to The Plurals recently hearing the latest development. “We have intimated to the minister that the permission has been only given to manufacture sparklers” said a PCB official on Tuesday while accepting that the information of the clearance, given by its regional office, only came to the knowledge of board’s higher echelons recently.

In late September, the Alipore regional office of the board has given ‘consent to operate’, the final clearance, to M.T. Industries in Putkhali village; while applications of another 6 – all 7 incidentally within Maheshtala police station area – are under various stages of consideration which have either applied for the ‘consent to operate’ or ‘consent to establish’. While ‘consent to operate’ is the final stage of approval from PCB, ‘consent to establish’ is the approval of setting the unit.

“Yes, we have obtained the clearance from PCB recently, on the basis of the certificate provided by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)” confirmed Sukdeb Naskar, a leader of an association of fireworks manufacturers and husband of Rekha Naskar; a Trinamul councillor of ward 30 in Maheshtala municipality, who owns the unit. According to The Plurals investigation, the legal name of the unit is actually Rekha Naskar while the trading name is M T Industries.

“Yes, it is our unit” confirmed Rekha Naskar on Sunday. “We do not need a fire license as manufacturers do not need that” claimed Sukhdeb, while quizzed on fire license, who also stated that this year the unit is only manufacturing non sound emitting fireworks due to confusion prevailing with green fireworks.

Sumit Gupta, district magistrate of South 24 Parganas, also promised to look into the green fireworks clearance provided to the unit in Maheshtala.