The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)) has started 24x7 real-time monitoring of polluting agencies in order to crack down on industries violating environmental norms, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Tuesday.
Rubbishing the British Petroleum report ‘Statistical Review of World Energy 2015’ launched in June, which has pointed out that India had become the largest contributor to emissions growth, at 157 metric tonnes of CO2, the Minister said that such reports emanating from the West were meant to put pressure on developing countries to curb emissions, whereas the responsibility to mitigate climate change primarily lay with the developed economies.
The latest BP report has also referred to China (+2.6%) and India (+7.1%) as recording the largest national increments to global energy consumption.
Last year, MoEF had decided to set up the 24X7 pollution monitoring system in critical polluting industries, but it is only now that the system has become fully operational. Mr. Javadekar said that sensors tracking pollution levels of effluents discharged and polluted air released from the chimneys of factories were now in place in 920 industries, from which the ministry was tracking data on a minute-by-minute basis.
Demonstrating the working of the live monitoring mechanism, Mr. Javadekar said that sitting right in their desks the ministry officials could track if there were any violations of norms laid down for polluting industries and in case such violations were detected, SMS alerts would be sent to the industrial units concerned.
Penal provisions
“The sensors installed at effluent discharge points can pick up the Bio Oxygen Demand (BoD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (CoD) and other similar parameters to reveal the actual compliance levels of various industries. Measures are also under way to strengthen penal provisions for violating industries and the draft of the new legal measures would be made available soon,” Mr. Javadekar said.
The Minister further announced that 400 industrial units had installed the zero liquid discharge mechanism. Distilleries, tanneries, chemical fertiliser companies, applying for clearances will now be mandated to compulsorily follow ZLD norms, which is a major reform measure, he said.
Given the top priority accorded to curb Ganga river pollution by the Modi government, polluting industries in places such as Kanpur, Banthar and Unnao, are being given special attention, and research is underway by the Central Leather Research Institute to see how tanneries located on the Ganga river bank can adopt ZLD.
The Ministry has also brought out the Draft Solid Waste Management Rules, 2015, which will aim to curb release of garbage into water bodies as part of the Swacch Bharat Mission.
The draft rules are open to public scrutiny and comments have been invited for the same until July 31.
