Due to poor response by industries operating illegally, the Delhi government has now given them one last opportunity to come forward and seek permission to operate or else they will be closed down.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had offered a one-time waiver for the defaulting units to come forward and obtain licences between April 1 and June 30.
Now the deadline has been extended till August 15.
A number of such industries have no pollution control measures in place and run unmonitored, even in residential areas and the department had in its notice in March said that the late or extra consent fee will be waived off if industries apply in this three-month period.
However, the response from these units has been dismal till now. Till June 16, only 460 industries have applied for ‘no objection certificate’ or compliance under the Air and Water acts. Out of these, 155 are under the ‘Green’ (non-polluting) and 505 under the ‘Orange’ (polluting) category.
“Since they have no consent, there is no control on these and are using any type of fuel, machines, and method of waste disposal.
“The idea is to include them within the ambit of DPCC because closing them down will lead to unemployment. But if they don’t come forward by mid August, we will have to take strict action and shut them down,” a senior environment department official said.
The government will also write to industry associations to convince these units to seek permission to operate soon. All industrial units existing in approved industrial and redevelopment areas are required to apply for consent under Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 before starting operations.
Imprisonment
Failure to obtain consent under the acts attracts penal action which involves imprisonment of a minimum one year and six months and a maximum of six years with fine up to Rs 5,000 per day.
But there are around 15,000 units which are operating illegally in redevelopment areas which are unplanned industrial clusters such as Libaspur, Shahdara, Mandoli etc.
As per the provisions of the Master Plan of Delhi and a Supreme Court order, only non-polluting industries (green category) are allowed in Delhi's periphery. However, in a number of clusters in the capital, many polluting industries operate illegally.
The Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation (DSIIDC) had in 2010 decided to redevelop these areas, as per the provisions of the master plan 2021 and the units operating in these areas had to provide the funds for their own development. But nothing has happened on that front so far and the deadline is over, the official said.
“We will also bring out some refinements in the existing policy of these 22 redevelopment areas,” he said.
Published 14 July 2016, 06:47 IST