Industry inspection simplified

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has framed an inspection policy to streamline and simplify the inspections of industrial units.

A spokesman for the board said the policy aimed at inspection of industries and projects for checking the compliance with the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981; Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; and rules made there under.

“Every inspection will be carried out after taking permission of the competent authority except in the case of inspection of illegal units operating without ‘consent to establish’ (CTE) and ‘consent to operate’ (CTO) of the board,” he said.

No inspection is required for the CTE cases unless violation comes to the notice of the HSPCB. Self-certification for compliance with prescribed policies and norms would be considered sufficient to decide the CTE applications subject to submission of complete application with prescribed documents and consent fee.

The spokesman said the category-wise list of all units covered under consent management and Bio-Medical Waste Rules would be uploaded in software to be developed by the board. Regional officers concerned will update the software from time to time.

“The selection of industries would be done through a system developed for identifying establishments that need to be inspected, based on computerised risk assessment considering different compliance requirements and prevailing categorisation of industry,” he said.

“Other than mandatory inspections, there may be a requirement to inspect in other circumstances such as in compliance with orders of various courts or tribunals, orders issued from head office for the purpose of verifying the compliance made by the unit, re-sampling on the request of unit itself, for verification of complaints and to initiate legal action against illegally established operating units,” the spokesman added.