By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, January 22, 2015

The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) on Wednesday slapped closure notices on three hotels along Puri sea beach for violating pollution control norms. Earlier, the Board had issued similar notices to 11 hostels in the town.

Ospcb had served show-cause notices to these hotels two weeks ago. Sources in the Board said that Three hotels failed to give a plausible explanation for the violations. These hotels were accused of discharging untreated waste water through drainage channels into the sea near Bankimuhan.

The authorities are under pressure to make sure that all hotels conform to pollution control norms before Nabakalebara of Lord Jagannath later this year which will attract mammoth crowd over twenty lakh.

The Board has served show-cause notices to 20 more hotels in Puri within seven days to file explanation, sources added.

The hotels came under pollution board’s scanner after the latter conducted tests to check the pollution level at Puri in March 2014. A total of 287 hotels were asked to apply for consent. The board’s consent is mandatory for establishing and running hotels.