The Hindu

Mangalore, Mar 1: I S N Prasad, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd, has termed the fears about the safety of the rehabilitation colony of people displaced by the Mangalore Special Economic Zone as “unfounded”.

He told The Hindu that the rehabilitation project had received clearances from Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. He was reacting to the objections raised by the Nagarika Hitarakshana Samiti of Kana Kulai against the rehabilitation colony. In a letter to the Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), the samiti had alleged that the rehabilitation colony was planned in a highly sensitive place, bounded by three “highly hazardous industries”: BASF India Ltd, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemical Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Company Ltd.

The samiti had attached a letter written by the Member Secretary of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to the Secretary of State Environment Department. In that letter, written in May 2007, the State Environment Department had been advised against approving the colony.

“That letter is outdated. We have subsequently received all clearances,” Mr Prasad said.

A team from KSPCB visited the site and conducted a risk-assessment study. It had instructed the company to leave out a green zone around the colony which would act as a buffer in case of a disaster.

Mr. Prasad said: “This site has been chosen by the people who are going to be displaced. They have not objected to it. I do not see why the samiti should object,” he said.