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VECL deals with the treatment of effluent waste by the industrial units in and around Vadodara. Picture for representational purpose Despite a Supreme Court judgment, a notice by GPCB and
additional breather given by the pollution control board, effluents continue to be dumped by the Vadodara Enviro Channel Ltd (VECL). VECL deals with the treatment of effluent waste by the
industrial units in and around Vadodara. It should be noted that earlier on December 13, the state's pollution watchdog GPCB had issued a notice to VECL asking it to stop the flow of
effluent through VECL's pipelines if corrective measures were not taken. GPCB was forced to act after an environment group threatened contempt action against it for not following a
Supreme Court judgment regarding the same. VECL at the end of 30 days had unsuccessfully approached the Gujarat high court for a stay. When it failed to get a stay the company again made a
representation to GPCB following which the latter had sought a time-bound action plan. KC Mistry, member secretary GPCB and Satish Panchal MD, VECL did not take calls from DNA. A message
sent to Mistry and Panchal about the status of the additional time-bound action also went unreplied. "The additional breather was given for a fortnight and we are not sure if anything
has happened on the ground. They are still talking of giving a time-bound action plan while effluents continue to flow in the VECL pipelines," said Rohit Prajapati of Paryavaran
Suraksha Samiti that had first moved the SC in this connection. Prajapati said that even as the GPCB patiently waits for VECL to swing into action, effluents continue to leak through the
pipeline including major leakages at Luna and Dudhwada clusters. "As far as we know none of the leakages have been repaired. That alone shows how serious they are about the issue,"
said Prajapati. "We have taken a sample of the recent days after the additional time for action was given by GPCB and at any given point of time, the lowest Chemical Oxygen Demand
(COD) was found to be 550 against the prescribed level of 250. Some days it was found to be as high as 1200," said Prajapati.