260 ‘clean’ units do not need green nod under new grouping

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) reclassified industries on the basis of their environment impact on Monday, relieving 260 industries from the requirement of green clearances.

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) reclassified industries on the basis of their environment impact on Monday, relieving 260 industries from the requirement of green clearances.

Pollution index is calculated based on emissions, effluents, hazardous wastes generated and resources consumed. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The move comes after the Centre framed a new policy on 5 March based on the degree of pollution from industries and asked all states to classify non-polluting industries under a new category according to their own requirements.

Apart from the Red, Orange and Green categories, the HSPCB introduced a new category – White -- that does not require a consent to operate. In Gurgaon there are around 3,000 industries.

“The change in the categorisation was required as it was creating problems for many industries and not reflecting the pollution levels. The new categories aim to remove this error and provide a clear picture. Around 20 industrial sectors that were not critically polluting were earlier categorised as Red,” an official of HSPCB said.

The new White category consists of industries that do not use water for production. These manufacturing units include biscuit trays, electric bulb and CFL , scientific and mathematical instruments. Industries generating solar power through photovoltaic cells, wind power and mini-hydel power are also exempted.

The Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFC) has developed the criteria of categorisation based on a pollution index -- a function of emissions (air pollutants), effluents (water pollutants), hazardous wastes generated and resources consumed.

“The Pollution Index (PI) of any industrial sector is a number from 0 to 100, and the increasing value of PI denotes the increasing degree of pollution load from the industrial sector,” Bhupender Singh, regional pollution officer, HSPCB, said.