Rourkela: The Odisha State Pollution Control Board has slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on public sector unit Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) for alleged violation of the pollution norms.

The board has slapped the fine for construction of the railway siding at the MCL's Basundhara mines. The siding is located on the west part of Basundhara mines at Sardega. That part belongs to the leased area of the MCL.

The green body alleged that the construction of the siding had been done without its approval.

The siding has been constructed by spending Rs 19 crore.

The board's member secretary Debi Biswal, who is stationed in Bhubaneswar, had brought this to the notice of pollution watchdog and raised objection. Acting upon the member secretary's advice, the board imposed the fine on the MCL.

The MCL comes under the jurisdiction of the regional officer of the green body in Jharsuguda. Speaking over phone, the regional officer, Niranjan Mallick, confirmed the fact.

Mallick said: "The objection was raised by the member secretary, and we soon looked into it and took note of it."

Mallick further said: "Before the construction, they should have taken the permission of the pollution board, which they did not take. Rather they went ahead with the construction. Later, when the pollution body raised objection to this, the MCL tried to regularise the whole thing by paying Rs 1 lakh. However, that is actually illegal and it cannot be regularised in such a manner. That's why we imposed the fine on the MCL."

MCL public relations officer Binayak Jamwal, however, refused to admit that it was a fine. He said it was a levy, which they "would have had to pay to the government anyway".

"We started the work early to complete it in time. And it is for this reason that we are paying five times of the amount. But it is not a fine," Jamwal said.