Techies to help protect industries' pollution data from tampering

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) wants to take the help of software professionals and even hackers to ensure that pollution data displayed online by industries is not tampered with.

Instead of going to industries for inspection at regular intervals, KSPCB had started the process of monitoring the pollution levels of industries online at their head office on Church Street, Bengaluru in February  2015.

They started issuing and renewing licences for green category industries from in 2014.

This month, online issuing and renewing of licences for orange category industries will start. For red category industries, it will start in December 2015.

“All this was done to draw more industries and show them that Karnataka is an industry friendly, tech-savvy State. This was introduced on the lines of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board. The Revenue department was very keen on this project. We wanted to be an eco-friendly office and ensure that there is no red-tapism.

But now, the task is to ensure that data entered is not tampered with. Plans are being drawn to take the help of software professionals and even hackers. The City has many companies and individual professionals who can be involved. Through them, we want to ensure that the data is fool proof,” a senior KSPCB official told Deccan Herald.

“This aspect was not given much importance earlier. This is important now as the number of industries registering online is increasing. Since the field visits by KSPCB officials will come down drastically because of the online monitoring, we want to bring in other technological tools to check the authenticity of the data.

Another major challenge before KSPCB is to ensure that industries do not dispose of their effluents unscientifically outside.

The zonal and regional officers will undertake surprise and regular inspections. Work in this regard is also under way,” the official added.