The State Pollution Control Board has withdrawn the closure notice given to Oil India Limited (OIL) to shut down all crude oil and gas wells in the Baghjan area.
The closure notice is withdrawn in pursuance of the affidavit submitted by M/s Oil India Ltd. under the following conditions:
a) M/s Oil India Ltd. shall have to submit a detailed time-bound Environmental Management Plan within 15 (fifteen) days from the date of issue of this letter for environmental mitigation and extinguishing of fire at the Baghjan Oil Field and act accordingly.
b) They have to apply for Consent to Operate (CTO) under Section 25 of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Section 21 of the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 separately for each and every drilling, production and other installations along with environmental management plan and requisite documents within 1 (one) month.
c) They have to submit all the details of Hazardous Waste generated, disposed & treatment facilities as per the Hazardous & Other waste (Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016.
d) They have to apply for Authorization under E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 and take necessary action for proper disposal of E-waste
e) They have to submit the return as per Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001 framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 within 31st July, 2020.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal expressed strong reservation over the Pollution Control Board(PCB)'s notice to the Oil India Limited (OIL) for the closure of Baghjan oil fields as he pointed out that life of lakhs of people would seriously be disturbed by this act.
Addressing a press conference at Dibrugarh, he said that Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited, Gas Cracker Limited and all the tea gardens of Upper Assam beside every major factories of Upper Assam was directly dependent on the natural gas produced by OIL.
He said that OIL would reply to the PCB notice but the Government would also take a fair decision considering the fate of the entire industries of upper Assam. Mr Sonowal was visibly unhappy with the PCB's closure notice to the OIL.
