Ranbaxy: Where There’s Smoke…
2 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 17th, 2007 // 12:36 pm
The generic drugmaker is being accused of violating a court order that prohibits expansion of a plant alongside several farms and homes. Villagers in Paonta Sahib have complained for three months to state pollution officials that Ranbaxy was operating an incinerator at night illegally.
Last July, the Himachl Pradesh state court indicted the company for irregularities, including multiple violations of land and environmental laws. Then, the Central Pollution Board, which was asked to set limits on dioxins and furans, barred Ranbaxy from using incinerators.
Ranbaxy was ordered to carry out an environmental impact assessment, which the company says was done; an earlier effort was rejected. The drugmaker maintains the incinerator was only operating on a trial run, although it’s not clear if pollution control officials were informed.
“How could Ranbaxy operate its incinerator when the norms have not been standardised?†asks Subodh Abbhi, an organic farmer in Batamandi, a village near the plant.
Does on detect a whiff of defiance? This is the same plant, by the way, that received an FDA warning letter last June. And the same company whose New Jersey offices were raised earlier this year by the same agency.
Further reading…
DownToEarth.org;
The FDA warning letter.
[tags]Ranbaxy Laboratories[/tags]
Subodh Abbhi
Ranbaxy conducted a sham public Hearing on the new EIA on 18th of May 2007. Hired hoodlums from the town were brought to the Public Hearing to shout for allowing the expansion. A panel consisting of people who had no inkling of the contents of the EIA presided over the proceedings. The affected villagers were not allowed to speak, The researched objections to the EIA were not answered. The farcical hearing conducted and hosted by the PCB officials was paid for by Ranbaxy. Its ironical that medicines from here will cure Americans from obesity and heart disease. The villager who expressed concern about the adverse effect on the water table was silenced and told that this was not important.
(un)Concerned American
We Americans are, and want to remain, blissfully ignorant about abhorrent labor and environmental conditions that exist in countries like China and India.
Our “not in my backyard” and “not on my watch” attitude is our defense mechanism to absolve ourselves of any responsibility. We do not want to know, think of or acknowledge the socio-economic impact of development that goes on in the name of development. We only cry foul when something untoward happens - like our pets falling sick - then we go and shut down all the factories in China. Talk about locking the barn door….
This story right here sounds like Erin Brockovich all over again - except Julia Roberts will not ‘hang out’ in the role of an ethnic Chinese or Indian - so a movie in this instance is unlikely. Michael Moore, though, ought to consider an exposé on manufacturing in the third world.
One day, and that day is not very far, we will HAVE to give more serious attention and thought to these increasingly frequent reports of unchecked development and wonder - How The Hell Did They Think They Would Get Away With This? (Did I mention the barn door…?)