'Environmental norms for iron and steel sector being revised'

The Centre is revising the environmental norms for iron and steel sector and clearance to industries in this sector will be given on case-to-case basis, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today said.
"The environmental norms for iron and steel sector are being revised by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The environmental clearance to these industries would be given on case-to-case basis," Javadekar said.
The Environment Minister was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha related to violation of environmental norms by iron and steel industries, and whether the government is considering increasing the norms and standards for them.

Javadekar also informed the Lower House that a "total of nine (iron and steel) units were issued directions under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986" since 2012, and they were in various stages of compliance.
Asked about Green Rating Project (GRP) by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which had reported that the iron and steel industries were failing to meet environmental norms, Javadekar said the report was examined and it was observed that it did not consider a few parameters.
"A few parameters such as reduced specific water consumption, 100 per cent utilisation of blast furnace and steel slag, rebuilding coke oven batteries, waste heat recovery, waste gas utilisation and recycling and reuse of solid wastes were not given weightage in GRP," he added.

The CSE had conducted the environmental rating of 21 major iron and steel plants across the country, having a capacity of more than 0.5 million tonnes per year.
It was based on more than 150 parameters like iron making, air pollution and solid waste management, and found that almost all the plants were non-compliant to the environmental norms.