KodaiMercury

NEERI, TNPCB in Bed with Polluter: Kodai Residents Allege

8 March, 2010. CHENNAI: The Tamilnadu Alliance Against Mercury – a coalition of Kodaikanal residents and organisations, and other environmental organisations – has called for an enquiry on Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute based on RTI documents that indicate that these agencies have colluded with Hindustan Unilever in downgrading standards for remediation of the latter’s mercury-contaminated site in Kodaikanal. In a blatant display of conflict of interest and abuse of office, NEERI consented to serve as Hindustan Unilever’s paid consultant even while serving as a member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on hazardous wastes. The SCMC took up the matter of environmental remediation of the contaminated Unilever site starting September 2004.