300 out of 700 industries inspected by CPCB in 4 yrs found violating polluting environment: Env Min

Over 300 out of 700 industries inspected by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have been found violating environmental norms and causing pollution in the last four years, the ministry of environment told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Replying to a question in the lower house of Parliament, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the CPCB carried out an inspection of 700 industries for verification of compliance to environmental norms between April 2016 and March 2020.

"CPCB has reported that out of the 700 industries inspected, 342 industries were found non-complying," he said.

Under provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, show-cause notices/ technical directions to 159 units and closure directions to 181 units were issued for non-compliance, the minister said.

Other than these, one direction each to Assam and Maharashtra State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) was issued under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

The states where a maximum number of industries were found non-compliant were Gujarat (41), Maharashtra (32), Odisha (25) and Uttar Pradesh (25).

Most of the industries which were found violating environmental norms were steel, cement, power and pharmaceutical.

However, out of the 342 units found non-complying during the inspection, 293 are complying as on date, the minister said, adding that directions/ notices issued for the remaining 49 non-complying units are still in force.