Ethanol factory: BRS govt breached all green norms

Hyderabad: The previous BRS government breached all the environmental norms in granting permission to set up the ethanol factory at Dilwarpur in Nirmal district.

Following the widespread protests by villagers against an upcoming ethanol factory, the current State government stopped the construction of the unit two days ago.

Officials said that according to the environmental permission given by the Centre, it is mandatory for the company to take a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the local bodies (gram panchayat or municipality). In this case, the last government violated the Central norms and permitted to set up the unit without the consent of the local bodies.

The company also constructed the compound wall without the permission of local bodies.

The then BRS government arbitrarily violated the environmental clearance norms. Officials said that the BRS government issued a letter of intent for the manufacture of 600 lakh litres of ethanol, extra neutral alcohol, industrial spirits, and absolute alcohol on October 22, 2022, without the cabinet’s approval.

The cabinet ratified this decision in December 2022.

Based on the self-certification submitted by the company, this factory falls under the B2 category and was exempt from the public consultation.

The Environment Ministry had given permission only for the production of fuel ethanol on February 24, 2023. But the company did not limit itself to that but applied for a license to manufacture ethanol, extra-neutral alcohol, industrial spirits, and absolute alcohol products on June 6, 2023, by showing a new letter of intent.

Based on the letter of intent given by the government, the Irrigation Department's Adilabad Chief Engineer's Department gave permission for water allocation on June 15, 2023. All the permissions were issued to this company through TS-iPASS before December 7, 2023, when the Congress came to power in the State.