Strict compliance of environmental laws, use of technology for reducing air pollution and capacity building of municipal bodies will be among the top focus areas for the environment ministry for the next three years, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
Listing Environment Ministry's achievements over the last two years, Javadekar said the most important among them include, increase in the forest cover, better monitoring of industrial pollution, representation of country's interest in COP Paris meet and passage of CAMPA bill.
He also said 2000 environmental approvals were granted in two years for unlocking an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore with a potential of generating 10 lakh jobs.
Outlining the roadmap for next three years, Javadekar said the ministry will continue to take initiatives for sustainable development.
"A law will be passed for compliance which will act as a deterrent for violation (of green norms). Secondly, to use technology for monitoring of the pollution norms all over the country and thirdly, build capacities in the local bodies because they are the ones who actually deal with the situation of waste management and other things," Javadekar said while addressing a press conference on ministry's achievements in the last two years.
Noting that there has been a reduction Delhi's air pollution, Javadekar said, the ministry held periodic review meetings with five neighboring states including Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to implement short-term and long term action plans.
"There are four-five states that impact air pollution in Delhi and they do not come under Delhi municipal jurisdiction. We called all of them including officials from Delhi government and asked them to prepare a plan. The battle against pollution has to be fought collectively," he said.
Javadekar said the government has managed to reduce the
industrial pollution in Ganga by 35 per cent through strict implementation of norms for critically polluting industries located near the river. However, sewage still remains a challenge as most of it goes into the river untreated.
"There are 764 industries which were polluting Ganga. We started monitoring each one of them through technology. We banned spent wash and black liquor as they were major pollutants. So things have improved. But unfortunately 85 per cent of sewage in India does not get treated. So there is pollution from sewage, industries and garbage that we are trying to manage," he said.
Spent wash is unwanted residual liquid waste generated during alcohol production while block liquor is also a waste product.
The ministry had also issued closure directions to 150 grossly polluting industries for non-installation of online continuous effluent monitoring system.
Talking about Genetically Modified crops, the minister said the government's job is to increase production and it can be achieved through science and technology.
"Our country's productivity is 50 per cent of the world's average in all crops and our job is to increase production. So science and technology has to be promoted to achieve that. We will not stop the progress of science. Therefore, we approved 18 proposals for free trials in last two years with considerations for safety," he said.
