Vellore Tannery Case Probe Goes to CB-CID, 3 Suspended

By Express News Service

Published: 06th February 2015 06:00 AM

Last Updated: 06th February 2015 

CHENNAI:Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on Thursday informed the South Bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) that three senior officials were  placed under suspension, even as State government transferred the investigation into the Ranipet tannery accident to CB-CID.

The NGT (SZ) Bar Association had moved a petition before the tribunal seeking CB-CID enquiry on the incident and sought setting up of a committee to inspect all tanneries and common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) to ensure that they have the necessary approvals to establish and operate and also to find out whether the CETPs were safe.

When the petition came up for hearing before the tribunal comprising judicial member, Justice P Jyothimani and Expert Member, R Nagendran, TNPCB counsel submitted a status report on the incident.

It stated that the Board had suspended Joint Chief Environment Engineer, S Charles Rodriquez, District Environment Engineer, P Kamaraj, and Assistant Environment Engineer M Muralidaran, as an immediate measure. In addition, 10 officials attached to the Vellore region of TNPCB have laso been transferred.

Further, the counsel said electricity supply to all the 79 tanneries in Vellore district has been disconnected temporarily and a four-member multi-disciplinary group has been set up to probe the incident. Recording the submissions, the tribunal directed TNPCB to inspect all the 79 tanneries and CETPs.

Anna University team to aid CB-CID in probing tannery tragedy in Ranipet

Express News Service/published Feb 6

Vellore: A four member experts from the Centre for Environmental Studies of Anna University would assist the investigation teams of the Crime Branch –CID in probing the tragic accident, which claimed the lives of 10 workers, in the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in SIDCO Industrial Estate in Ranipet.

Inspector General (IG) of Police of Crime Branch CID Mahesh Aggarwal, after inspecting the accident spot on Friday, told the media person that they have constituted five special teams to investigate into the tragic accident. They would be assisted by a team of four experts from the Anna University.

Superintendent of Police of CBCID G Nagajothi said that Prof N Vasudevan and three other experts from the Central for Environmental Studies. She added that they began the preliminary inquiry./eom/shnan/