Gold processing unit could pose health hazards to the residents of Kakkanchery
Kinfra Techno-Industrial Park at Kakkanchery: Khozikode, Kerala observed World Environment Day by organising a shutdown of their industrial units. On Thursday 27 food processing firms and 26 IT companies staged a shutdown in protest against the setting up of the Rs 200-crore gold processing factory in the park, right next to the country’s first food processing park. A city wide strike kept the shops and business establishments closed for the day.
The companies fear that the gold processing unit, which falls in the ‘Red’ category of industries, will be detrimental to the region’s largest food processing zone. Kinfra Industries Chamber, a collective of firms operating in the park are worried that the gold unit will produce hazardous industrial waste including sulphuric acid, nitric acid and potassium cyanide besides other effluents which will have an adverse effect on the food processing unit.
Not only to the food processing unit, the gold unit could also pose a threat to the health of around 500 families residing in the Kakkanchery, Chelembra and Palikkal areas. Kakkanchery Parisara Samrakshana Samithi (KPSS) which has been spearheading the agitation against the plant wants the authorities to revoke the sanction to the gold unit.
Source- The Times of India
Kakkanchery Parisara Samrakshana Samithi, Kinfra Techno-Industrial Park, World Environment Day
