800 polluting industries in Haryana; NGT mandates monitoring systems

Contrary to the state’s pompous claims of green commitment, it tops states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi in number of industries discharging effluents and polluting water bodies such as the Yamuna. With over 800 such industries being listed out by the CPCB, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) to ensure installation of online continuous effluent monitoring systems (OCEMS) in grossly polluting industries (GPIs) that have failed to comply with environmental norms. According to the norms, the industries discharging more than 10 kilolitres per day (KLD) of effluents must mandatorily install OCEMS to monitor parameters such as pH, flow, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solids (TSS), while those discharging less than 10 KLD are required to fit flow meters and web cameras at outlet points.

Not just Haryana, but the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi have been asked to do the same and submit a compliance report as the petitioner submitted a CPCB report which listed 149 defaulting GPIs in Delhi, 704 in Uttar Pradesh, 812 in Haryana and 21 in Bihar. The Tribunal ordered that Member Secretaries of the State Pollution Control Boards of UP, Haryana, Bihar, and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) must submit compliance reports within two months to the CPCB.

The Bench comprising Justice Prakash Shrivastava (Chairperson) and Dr Afroz Ahmad (Expert Member) passed the order while hearing a petition filed by advocate Imran Ahmad on Yamuna and Ganga pollution by the industries. Ahmed alleged that despite repeated orders and directives from the CPCB, the number of GPIs is on constant rise in the states and several GPIs across the four states continue to discharge untreated effluents into fragile water ecosystems, including the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. The petitioner listed around 1,700 industries that were operating without installing the mandatory OCEMS leading to major violation of green norms and leading to acute pollution of water bodies, which were crucial for real-time tracking of effluent quality.