The health wing of the city Corporation on Wednesday closed down a furniture workshop that was found to be operating illegally without necessary licences. The civic body had in 2019 issued a notice to the workshop owner following a complaint from a nearby resident about noise pollution and large amounts of wood dust generated from the facility.
However, the owner had by then procured an MSME licence from the Industries department. The complainant had also filed a case at the Kerala High Court against the pollution, following which the Corporation conducted checks at the workshop in 2020 and issued a stop memo after finding the allegations to be true.
The District Industries Centre then cancelled the MSME licence and the Pollution Control Board (PCB) withdrew its consent. The Corporation again issued a step memo in September 2021 after finding that the workshop was operating without any pollution control mechanisms.
The owner further submitted an appeal to the Corporation council in December 2021 which was rejected. The Corporation requested the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to disconnect the power supply to the facility.
With the owner's appeals to the Local Self-Government ombudsman and to the High Court getting rejected, the Corporation Secretary issued an order to close down the workshop. A team led by Corporation health inspectors S.S. Minu, Baby. S, Shaji K. Nair and Mithran. G and a team from the Pothencode police station sealed the workshop.
