Environment Ministry gets tough on polluting units

"We will not give enviroment clearance unless the new units comply with the norms," the Minister told reporters here on the sidelines of a public hearing session on Bt Brinjal.

Disclosing that Ludhiana ranked 8th among the 88 critically polluted clusters identified around the country, he said he had asked the Punjab Government to prepare a detailed action plan to deal with pollution in Ludhiana.

Ramesh said that a notification to overcome the problem of pollution has been released to all those cities, which are emitting heavy amount of industrial pollution.
He said the notification of pollution control has also affected the investment plan of Rs 25,000 crore, which is in the pipeline for the industrial development in Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh in Punjab.

"We can relax this notification, but we have given the State Government three months' time to come out with the Action Plan to curb pollution," he said.

He further said that various state governments must own the responsibility to maintain the environmental standards by checking the increasing rate of municipal and industrial pollution through the State Pollution Control Boards.

"We are putting maximum pressure on State Pollution Control Boards to issue closure notice to the units which fail to adhere to the laid down norms," he said.