The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has released a new Four-colour Classification Scheme for industries based on their pollution potential.
The four-colour classification scheme of industrial sectors based on the Pollution Index (PI) which is a function of the
- (i) Emissions (air pollutants)
- (ii) Effluents (water pollutants)
- (iii) Hazardous wastes generated and
- (iv) Consumption of resources
The PI of any industrial sector is a number ranging from 0 to 100. Increasing value of PI denotes the increasing degree of pollution load from the industrial sector.
Based on the on ‘Range of Pollution Index‘, industrial sectors have been categorised into four colours category. Under the new categorisation system:-
Red category: PI score of 60 and above. These are severe polluting industries. Total 60 industries including sugar, thermal power plants, paints and others are under in it.
- No Red category of industries shall normally be permitted in the ecologically fragile area / protected area.
Orange category: PI score of 41 to 59. They moderately polluting industries. Total 83 industries like coal, washeries and automobile servicing are placed under it.
Green category: PI score of 21 to 40. They are significantly low polluting industries. Total 63 industries are under in it.
White category: PI score below and upto 20. They are non-polluting industries. Total 30 industries are under in it. These industries are exempted from requirement of environmental clearance.
- Newly-introduced White category contains 36 industrial sectors which are practically non-polluting.
- There shall be no necessity of obtaining the Consent to Operate’’ for White category of industries. An intimation to concerned SPCB / PCC shall suffice.The newly introduced White category of industries pertains to those industrial sectors which are practically non-polluting, such as
- Biscuit trays etc. from rolled PVC sheet (using automatic vacuum forming machines),
- Cotton and woolen hosiers making (Dry process only without any dying/washing operation),
- Electric lamp (bulb) and CFL manufacturing by assembling only,
- Scientific and mathematical instrument manufacturing,
- Solar power generation through photovoltaic cell, wind power and mini hydel power (less than 25 MW).
The purpose of the categorization is to ensure that the industry is established in a manner which is consistent with the environmental objectives.
The new criteria will prompt industrial sectors willing to adopt cleaner technologies, ultimately resulting in generation of fewer pollutants.
Another feature of the new categorization system lies in facilitating self-assessment by industries as the subjectivity of earlier assessment has been eliminated.
This ‘Re-categorization’ is a part of the efforts, policies and objective of present government to create a clean & transparent working environment in the country and promote the Ease of Doing Business.
Other similar efforts include
- Installation of Continuous Online Emissions/ Effluent Monitoring Systems in the polluting industries,
- Revisiting the CEPI (Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index) concept for assessment of polluted industrial clusters,
- Revision of existing industrial emission/effluent discharge standards,
- Initiation of special drive on pollution control activities in Ganga River basin
How to find / arrive at pollution index of any company?
ReplyDelete