Green nod: Polluting units to get longer rope

The union environment ministry plans to grant green consent for longer periods to polluting industries, instead of the current annual approvals.

Even the highly-polluting industries like thermal power plants and cement factories would be given consent for five years and asked to improve their emission parameters in accordance with the standards set up by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)

The ministry has improved the pollution colour coding scheme – red, orange, green and white – and changed the scoring pattern to re-categorise industries in these groups.

The most polluting industry would be in the red category, while the cleanest one would be in the green and white category. “Those in the 'red' category would have to seek approval once in five years; those in 'orange' would need approval once in 10 years and those in 'green' would get approval for life time. Those in the white category won't need a certificate as they are non polluting,” Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday at the end of state environment ministers’ conference.

Currently, the categorising is on the basis of a 1989 order that takes into account discharge effluents, energy consumption and employee strength of an industrial unit.
“In the new scoring system, the focus would be on pollution potential, focussing on air pollution (40 points),  water pollution (40 points) and handling of hazardous waste (20 points),” said Sashi Sekhar, special secretary in the environment ministry and acting chief of CPCB.

Initially, the CPCB would set the standards for 17 highly polluting sectors that fall in the red category. They include thermal power plants, cement, pulp and paper, chemicals, steel and textile.