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Putting an end to the ongoing public protest the alleged  filling of Chitrapuzha River at Irumpanam by Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, the Tripunithura Municipality on  Monday clarified that the company was not conducting any such activities in the area.

Tripunithura municipal chairman R Venugopal, after the visiting the spot, told media that KRL was only conducting the filling of 16 acres of land near the river which is part of their integrated expansion project worth `20,000 crore.  The Land Survey Department, the Minor Irrigation Department, village officer and councillors accompanied the municipal chairman. “The Refinery has got permission from the state government to fill the land in the area. However, as part of the filling work, the company brought in several loads of mud to the site. A small part of it had fallen into the river owing to the carelessness of the workers. We had given instructions to remove the mud immediately,” Venugopal said.

Three days ago, the municipality gave the company a memo to stop the land filling until the municipal officials conduct an inspection on the site to ensure no encroachments into the river. Meanwhile, Chief Manager of BPCL Kochi Refinery George Thomas said the instruction of the local body will be followed by the company.

“We have so far obeyed all the instructions of the local body. We had halted the land filling work for facilitating the inspection of the local body. The remaining work related to the land filling and the erection of the compound walls of the Kochi Refinery at Irumpanam will be conducted only after taking out the mud from the river,” he said.

Source-On Request