Civic body told to check possible violation of PCB norms

MALDA, Aug 1: Malda sub-divisional officer (SDO) Ms Arunima De has asked the English Bazaar civic body to examine whether cellular service providers had followed pollution control board (PCB) guidelines before installing mobile towers.Earlier, local residents had lodged complaints with the district administration against two towers at Regent Park (ward no. 24) and ward no. 19, belonging to BSNL and Vodafone respectively. They alleged that the service providers did not follow recent PCB guidelines. On 30 July, Ms De asked the chairman of the English Bazaar Municipality (EBM) to withdraw its permission of tower installation from the concerned service providers if it was found that they did not follow PCB guidelines. After receiving the letter from the SDO, vice-chairman of the EBM Mr Dulal Sarkar said: “There is no question of withdrawal of permission as regards the BSNL tower at Regent Park because the authorities did not seek permission from us.” “BSNL does not bother to seek permission from the municipality in Malda. All BSNL towers here have been installed without permission from the municipality,” said Mr Sarkar. n SNS