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The ministry of chemical and fertiliser proposes to recommend lifting of environmental ban on chemical industrial areas of Ankleswar and Vatva in the state of Gujarat.
This follows recommendation of the Gujarat government which has assured the central government these areas have compiled with environmental guidelines and upgraded infrastructure.
The ministry will be shortly putting up a proposla with the Ministry of Environment. and Forests. The moratorium was imposed in 2010 following violation of envionmental guidelines and accordingly no expansion of existing capacity was allowed in these areas.
The ban was imposed along with other industrial areas like Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Vapi. These aras however got the tag lifted in 2011.
Officials said in accordance with norms of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and the local stakeholders have already adopted measures for implementation of the submitted action plans in respect of the 20 industrial clusters/areas across the nation.
In its action plan released in 2009-10, the MoEF had developed a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI), for environmental assessment of 88 industrial clusters in the country, as part of a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
CEPI, which combines effects of air, water and soil pollution, is intended to be used as early warning tool for categorizing industrial clusters/areas in terms of severity of overall pollution levels. Based on this assessment, 43 industrial clusters have been identified as critically polluted.
Accordingly based on these index, ban was imposed on 20 industrial clusters in 2010 as per which further expansion of existing capacity in these areas was banned till firm action plans for remediation of these critically polluted clusters progress are adopted and progress made, officials said.
