CPCB directs SPCBs to check emissions & effluents

The Central Pollution Control Board today directed state pollution control boards in the north east region to speed up live monitoring of emissions and effluents from major polluting industries on a continuous basis to help arrest environmental dilapidation.

"The Central Pollution Control Board have asked state pollution control boards in the North East to comply with the pan India order in which major polluting industries are to install monitoring equipments in their industries to check emissions and effluents on a continuous basis," Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board secretary J H Nengnong told PTI.

He said the CPCB has also sought compliance report from highly polluting industries of 17-category in Meghalaya consisting of five cement plants and two power plants and a thermal plant in Mizoram which did not complied with the CPCB orders in 2015.
 

CPCB chairman S P Parihar, who chaired the meeting with all officials from State Pollution Control Boards of eight states in the North East region here, also discussed monitoring of air, water and waste managements in the states and directed them to comply with the latest rules notified by the Government.

Parrihar also reviewed state specific issues such as the issue of coal, limestone and sandstone mining in rural Meghalaya and water pollution in urban areas.

The CPCB chief was also briefed on the issue of Jhum cultivation causing air pollution in Mizoram and Nagaland besides other pollution issues in Assam which its board has to follow up on, Nengnong said.

As for Assam, the CPCB has sanctioned 63 new water monitoring networks increasing the number of such monitoring stations to 164, according to an official presentation before states.

Later, Parihar told PTI, that state governments in the North East have to learn to work together and learn from each other.

"We need to work very closely, interact very frequently, use all the tools in governance and to try and connect with each other and we will be very happy to resolve all the issues we have," Parihar said.

"We also said that all the technical institutions available in this region should be utilised to the fullest so that their expertise is available," he said.