Haryana pollution board told to tighten noose around industries polluting Yamuna

The joint team comprising the officials of the technical institutions and Haryana State Pollution Control Board has been directed to complete the surprise inspections at Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) located in the Yamuna belt of the state.

As per the letter written by the member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a joint team from officials of the IITs and NITs were engaged for carrying out the annual inspection at GPIs located in the main stem states of rivers Ganga and Yamuna and their tributaries to verify the compliance as per the notified norms under the Namami Gange Programme.

Of the 1,145 GPIs identified in Haryana, only 831 have been inspected, the letter states. Of those inspected reports have been made available to the HSPCB for 522 units and HSPCB has completed action at 143 GPIs. As many as 99 units were found to be complying with the norms, while 25 were self-closed and 19 were non-complying.

Thus, the HSPCB has issued show-cause notices to the 19 non-complying GPIs. Of these, 11 cases of effluent by-pass were reported by the technical institutions and action has been initiated on four such types of industries, the letter reveals.

As per the set of guidelines, the HSPCB nominates a nodal officer, who will coordinate with the technical institutions for participation in joint inspection of the GPIs. The state has also been directed to submit the action-taken report to the CPCB within 15 days. In case of non-compliance of the norms, the HSPCB is to issue required directions even closure notice to the industries and the unit will be re-inspected and closure directions be issued in case of non-compliance within the 30 days of the inspection.

Even if the technical institutes are not allowed to enter the industries, closure directions and compliance verification of such units can be carried out by technical institutes and HSPCB officials participating in the joint inspection. If the samples are being analysed by the HSPCB labs, results will be provided to the institutions within 15 days.

Speaking of the developments, HSPCB chairperson P Raghavendra said the inspections are being carried out as per the schedule. He said the board was providing all assistance to the third-party inspection teams and required action is being taken as per the norms.

The board’s nodal officer Naveen Gulia said immediate action is being taken as per the recommendations of the inspection teams, adding that technical institutions cooperate with field and regional officers. Of the total 1,145 GPIs located in Haryana, reports of about 740 inspections have been received and HSPCB has already taken necessary action on about 400 units.

“The complete inventory of GPIs is also under process and will be provided to CPCB soon after the collection of complete data from our regional officers and it will be completed soon,” he added.

GPIs, for the uninitiated, are defined as industrial units having potential to discharge 100 kg per day of biochemical oxygen demand load or handling hazardous chemicals as specified in manufacturing import and storage of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989.