Programme and Developments

The situation had arisen which required immediate steps to be taken for industrial pollution control as the routine enforcement through penal provisions of the various legislations, which used to be a long drawn affair and the industries preferring to be drawn to courts rather than implementing pollution control systems, did not yield effective pollution control. Hence, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) selected the following 18 categories of major polluting industries for priority action:

The SPCBs were asked to modify the 'consents' already issued to the units of these 18 categories to ensure that time-bound programmes for installing pollution control facilities are formulated by each of the units, keeping in view the above target date for standard compliance. The SPCBs were also asked to restrict the validity of these consents upto December 31, 1991 and grant their renewal only in cases, where units were complying with the standards.

Meanwhile, a 15-point programme, for priority action, was formulated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The first item of this 15-point action plan identified 17 categories of polluting industries for standard compliance by December 31, 1991. These 17 categories included all the categories identified by the CPCB, except the category 'Sulphuric Acid', which was omitted due to the fact that most of the sulphuric acid plants are captive units of the fertiliser plants, which is already covered under the 17 categories. The programme was rigorously followed up by the Central Board.

The status of pollution control in each of the medium and large units of 17 categories, was continuously obtained from the SPCBs, collected, compiled and reported regularly to MoEF. A report was also prepared for ascertaining the pollution control status in these units, as on December 31, 1991.

The time target of December 31, 1991, continued to be the focus for reviewing the pollution control status in the identified industries, but for the units which had taken adequate steps to display proof of commencement of physical work for controlling pollution, the dates by which such units could be permitted to comply, were further fixed, vide the MoEF's notification of February 12, 1992. The industry, operation or process which has commenced production on or before the 16th May, 1981 (i.e. the Pre-81 units) was required to comply with the standards latest by the 31st day of December, 1993; and the unit which has commenced production after the 16th day of May, 1981 but before the 31st day of December, 1991 (i.e. the Post-81 and Pre-91 units), was given time up to the 31st day of December, 1992 to comply with the standards.

The programme was followed up with the State Environment Departments, and SPCBs, to review the progress of the action plan as per the provisions of the February 12, 1992 - notification. The concerned Ministries were also approached for speedy implementation of the pollution control programmes in the public sector units.

The Central Board, while monitoring the progress of the pollution control programme in the 17 categories, continuously collected the data for all the States/UTs, and compiled for the reporting quarterly progress to MoEF. Status reports were also prepared for all the 17 categories of industries in the country to review the progress. While this effort continued, the month of January, 1993 was observed as 'Compliance Month', when day to day progress of the actions taken by the SPCBs against the willful defaulters among the Post-81 & Pre-91 units (for which the maximum possible target date was December 31, 1992) was monitored. This involved daily collection of the information from the SPCBs, compilation and reporting to MoEF, throughout the month of January, 1993.

The progress was again reviewed, after this exercise and willful defaulters were identified. It is pertinent to mention that the December 31, 1993, was the target date for compliance for the Pre-81 industries. After careful consideration regarding actions to be taken against the defaulting units, CPCB issued directions to SPCBs, on January 27, 1994 through which the SPCBs were required to :

The above exercise was to be completed by the SPCBs by the end of February, 1994, followed by reporting of the progress to the CPCB.

To follow up these directions, the CPCB collected the latest information in respect of all the States/UTs through visits by the CPCB officers to the concerned SPCBs for updating of the data on the status of pollution control in the identified 17 categories of industries. A compilation, ascertaining the status in each of the above units, as on June 30, 1994, based on the information provided by SPCBs/UTs, was prepared and published by the CPCB.

Delegation of Powers to CPCB

The implementation of pollution control programmes in respect of defaulters as on June 30, 1994 was pursued by CPCB through meetings with the concerned SPCBs, industrial sectors etc. and also continued follow ups to make the State Boards for initiating legal actions against the defaulters. While the process continued, the MoEF, delegated the powers under Section 5 of the E (P) Act, 1986, to the Chairman, CPCB to enable initiation of action against the defaulters directly. This followed issuance of the show cause notices under Section 5 of the E(P) Act, to all the existing defaulters by CPCB in August-September, 1996. The objections filed by the industries were reviewed on a case to case basis by a Committee of experts constituted by the Chairman, Central Board, and follow up actions were taken as per the recommendations of the Committee in consultation with the MoEF. This resulted in issuance of confirmed directions, to file affidavits to those industries which claimed to have provided adequate effluent/emission control facilities, declaring compliance claimed by them in their objections, and to complete all the pending job by specific target date as specified in the direction to those industries which had already made considerable progress in the regard.

Identified Industries

A total of 1551 large and medium industries, which came into operation on or before December 31, 1991, got identified for priority actions under this programme.

Statewise Distribution

Categorywise Distribution

Relative Distribution

The review of the Statewise and Categorywise distribution reveals that States of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have substantially large number of industries in the identified sectors and that the sugar sector has the maximum number of (i.e. 392) industries, followed by pharmaceuticals, distillery, cement and fertiliser. It also indicate that agro-based and chemical industries have major shares of 47% and 37% respectively, of the total number of industries. About 77% and 15% of the industries are predominantly water polluting and air polluting respectively and 8% of the industries are potentially both air and water polluting.

Progress made

Yearwise Progress

* Having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

** Not having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

Reduction in Defaulters

Progress after Delegation of powers to CPCB

The status of these identified 1551 large and medium industries falling under 17 categories of highly polluting industries as on March 1996 when the powers under Section 5 of the E(P) Act, 1986 was delegated to CPCB and as June, 2000 is as follows :

Caustic Recovery System of a Textile Industry

Sludge Dewatering System of a Distillary Unit (above)
Hydrochloric Acid Absorption / Handling system of a Caustic soda Industry (below)

Present Status

Categorywise (as on June 30, 2000)

# Having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

## Not having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

Statewise (as on June 30, 2000)

# Having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

## Not having adequate facilities to comply with the standards

Break-up of the 62 Defaulting Units

Name of the 62 Defaulting Units