The notice comes after a massive breach in the plant’s Veregaon ash dam caused 15 farms to be inundated, causing crop damage.
The notice, issued by MPCB regional officer Hema Deshpande, revealed that Mahagenco, the state power generation company, has failed to pay environmental compensation of ₹93 lakh and ₹13.5 lakh, imposed by the board last year following a similar breach at the Khasala ash dam of the Koradi power plant.
The MPCB criticized MahaGenco for not taking the issue seriously and failing to conduct a feasibility audit of its ash dams. According to the notice, the officials of the board had inspected the Veregaon dam after the breach and found that due to the breach in the dam wall, ash flowed into the surrounding agricultural fields and the Kanhan river basin. “You have failed to manage excess flow from the tow drain around the ash dam,” the board wrote.
After the inspection, the power company had written a letter to the MPCB saying that the capacity of the Veregaon ash bund has been exhausted. Referring to this, the MPCB said that the plant authorities did not take measures to dispose of the old fly-ash in the dam, thus violating the fly-ash utilization norms. “As a result of this the dam breached and the surrounding areas got polluted,” the board said.
It was further stated that prior to the incident of breach, there were continuous complaints regarding release of ash mixed water in Kanhan river.
“These non-compliances show negligent attitude towards implementation of environment laws and violation of provisions of Water Act, 1974, Air Act, 1981 and Hazardous and Other Waste Rules 2016 and Amendment 2019,” the notice said. It sought Mahagenco’s reply as to why strict action should not be taken for the lapses. MPCB has warned of legal action if the company does not respond within seven days.
Affected farmers of Veregaon told TOI that they have not yet received any compensation for crop damage. “Now we are not allowing the authorities to remove the ash from our fields. If we do this then some of the remaining crops will also be destroyed due to the movement of vehicles. We cannot afford more losses as we are already facing extreme financial stress due to the violations,” he said.