UNIFORM CONSENT PROCEDURE

Draft rules under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 have been notified regarding uniform consent procedure to be followed by the Pollution Control Boards. This would bring in more transparency and expeditious decision making towards regulatory functions of the Boards. This would also provide level fields for stakeholders and facilitate investments for sustainable development. The new proposals provide for combined application form for obtaining consent and include aspects of water pollution, air pollution, and hazardous waste handling and management. No authorisation shall be required in case of industries which are not generating hazardous wastes as per the specified category and a statement to this effect shall be sufficient for consideration of application.

In order to clear the applications expeditiously, it has been decided that application shall be processed in two stages only. Even the scrutiny of the application has been streamlined. Minimal frequency of the visits to the industries by the officers of Pollution Control Boards has been stipulated. The polluting industries (red category) in the small scale category will be visited once in 12 months, whereas large and medium sized industry shall be visited once in three months. The new rules provide for recovery of charges by the Pollution Control Boards on account of collection of samples and its analysis.

Further the industries have to progressively build up their own capabilities to carry out monitoring. The State Industrial Development Corporations are now being given the responsibilities for providing facilities for proper collection and disposal of treated effluent from the industrial estates and regular monitoring of the ambient air, noise and water in their industrial areas.

The SPCBs/PCCs are now required to issue the consent order valid for a longer period against each category of industries. For red categories, the consent validity period is two years and for orange and green categories it will be three and five years respectively. For the non-polluting industries in the tiny/cottage category, the consent validity would be ten years. The adoption of new procedures will not only save the time of industries but also streamline the functioning of regulatory Board.

The new rules also provide for application of information technology in consent management in the SPCBs/PCCs.