KSPCB and Canara Industries Association jointly launched the Clean Backampadi Industrial Area drive in Mangaluru on Friday, June 2. Photo credits: Raghav M.
Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Canara Industries Association (KIA) on Friday launched a cleanliness drive at the Backampadi industrial area.
KSPCB senior environment officer Vijaya Hegde said, “By starting the campaign, we want to ensure that cleanliness should be a continuous practice in this old industrial area.”
KSPCB personnel and representatives and employees of industries simultaneously cleaned roads at six different locations including 3 km long Road No. 1 and Road No. 2 and 4.
“We have planned to run this campaign for a whole month and clean 549 acres of industrial area. KSPCB environment engineer BR Ravi said establishments which have been closed for several weeks will be asked to clean their premises. “We hope to transform this old industrial area,” said Mr. Ravi. In the second phase of the campaign, the KSPCB plans to install dust-sucking machines on the roads and pour water into them.
In the third phase, the KSPCB plans to plant different varieties of saplings and further increase the green cover in the area. He said that a recent study has found that the Backampadi Industrial Area is one of the few places in the city which has good green cover.
Representatives of industries operating in the area said that they are pro-active in keeping the area clean and ensuring strict compliance of pollution and other norms by the industrial units. “We have our own mechanism to ensure that no industry discharges untreated effluent into water bodies. We also ensure that the units here do not violate any other government norms,” said Henry Brito, former KIA president.
Ajit Kamath, another former KIA president, said the association’s members were carrying out regular cleaning exercises in and around their units. Mr. Kamath said that the association has planted more than 40,000 trees in the area, including good fruit-bearing trees.