The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has sought to integrate approvals for polluting industries to set up operations, in an effort to “reduce the compliance burden” on them and avoid the duplication of clearances.
In two notifications released on November 12, the ministry has said that “white industries” – those considered the least polluting – will not need any approvals from state pollution authorities before establishing and operating their plants.
The notification also says majorly polluting industries, such as coal washeries, need not apply for permits to establish their plants from state authorities, as long as they have already obtained environmental clearance from the central government.
“From an efficiency point of view, integrating the two approvals isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since the Environmental Clearance process is much more stringent,” said Debadityo Sinha, lead of Climate and Ecosystems at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
No dual approvals
India’s Air and Water Acts make it mandatory for industries that are likely to release effluents and emissions to obtain permits from the State Pollution Control Boards, in the form of Consent to Establish – obtained before the plant is set up – and Consent to Operate – obtained before the plant begins activities.
These certifications obligate the State Pollution Control Boards to conduct checks at the time of application and renewal, in order to ensure compliance with pollution norms.
The new notifications, issued under the Air and Water Acts, exempt a total of 39 “white industries” from obtaining both Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate. Instead, they will only have to inform State Pollution Control Boards of their activities in writing.
“The expectation is that they will self-regulate, but we know well that asking industries to do so is not necessarily the best idea,” said Bhargav Krishna convenor and coordinator of the Environmental Governance and Policy vertical at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative, a think tank.
The white industries that are exempt from obtaining state approvals include repairs and assembly of air conditioners, making biscuit trays from PVC and the manufacturing of coir items from coconut husks. However, the exemption also includes industries like fly ash brick manufacturing and chalk manufacturing. Fly ash is a byproduct of coal burning and includes toxic elements responsible for causing air pollution.
“Instead of removing the clearances altogether, making it a much more straightforward process would’ve been a better choice. The white industries are not totally “clean”, and that would still provide a point of contact with regulators and an opportunity for citizens to query the processes involved, if there are issues,” Krishna added.
For majorly polluting industries covered by the Environmental Impact Assessment notification of 2006, project proponents can skip applying for Consent to Establish from state pollution boards but may still need to apply for Consent to Operate. The environmental impact assessment notification mandates large development projects apply for environmental clearance from the central government, particularly for polluting industries like thermal power, storage of hazardous chemicals, pulp and paper manufacturing, sugar industries, and others.
To avoid duplication of approvals for these industries, the government has instead proposed issuing a Standard Operating Procedure that includes state pollution boards in the environmental clearance process. However, no such SOP has been issued by the government yet.
According to Rahul Chaudhary, founder member of the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, the exemption of industries from Consent to Establish could reduce the duplication of approvals, but a stronger regulatory mechanism should be introduced to ensure compliance by these industries.
“For large projects, an Expert Appraisal Committee sitting in New Delhi vets projects for environmental clearance. When setting conditions for establishment, the central committee may not have an idea of local factors that should be factored into decision making. State pollution bodies have that knowledge,” he said, adding, “There should be a regulatory mechanism that ensures checks on these industries, to make sure they are complying with environmental norms.”
The Ministry of Environment revealed last week that during site inspections, nearly half of the 268 units visited from highly polluting industries were found to be non-compliant with environmental norms.
Colour-coding industries
Since 2014, the government has introduced measures to unburden state and central pollution boards from tracking environmental compliance. Some of these measures include allowing third party inspections and self-certifications by project proponents for compliance monitoring.
In 2016, the Central Pollution Control Board introduced the “white industry” category which would be exempt from applying for Consent to Operate and site inspections. This exercise was done on the insistence of State Pollution Control Boards and industry associations, who said the categorisations of industries should be done in a “more pragmatic manner.”
The colour coded pollution index scores industries from 0-100, based on air pollutants, water pollutants, hazardous wastes and consumption of resources. Industries with a score of 20 and less were determined to be “white industries” and the least polluting, those with a score of 21-40 as green, 41-59 as orange, and 60 and above as highly polluting red industries.
This article was first published on Mongabay.
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