Centre bans new industries in polluted areas till Aug 2010. Union govt will review the situation after 8 months. New units were banned in Vapi, Ankleshwar in Sept 2009.
If you are thinking of setting up a new industry in one of the major industrial hubs of Gujarat, then hold your horses. The Union ministry of environment and forests is not giving environmental clearance for new industries in the major industrial areas of the state, at least till August this year.
The ban order was issued by the ministry last week. However, it does not apply to units already established in these areas and they can continue to function as before. Industrial estates in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Junagadh are included in the list of 88 most polluting regions identified by the Central ministry. Vatva and Nandesari industrial estates, which are included in the list, have come in for special mention for their high pollution levels.
The industrial estates where new industries are banned at least till August 2010 are in addition to Ankleshwar and Vapi for which 'environmental impact assessment' (EIA) clearances were stopped in September last year.
The Union minister of state for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, says there is no need to panic as the situation would be reviewed in eight months. “There is no politics involved here,” he said. “We are just concerned about pollution.” Despite his assurance, the latest ban may prove to be something of a setback to many of the MoUs signed at different Vibrant Gujarat summits.
What is causing special concern is the mention of whole cities such Ahmedabad and Vadodara in the list of areas where new industries cannot be set up. “We are hoping we will get clarification on whether the ban is for specific areas of the cities or whole urban regions,” said RG Shah, member secretary, Gujarat
Pollution Control Board. However, those in the know of things candidly concede that there is indeed a huge problem of pollution in these areas. “Some rather 'prestigious' business houses are polluting with abandon in these regions,” a source said.
“For this reason, officials in the affected regions are pleased that the Union government has finally cracked the whip.” Principal secretary of Gujarat’s environment department SK Nanda said the department is preparing an action plan on how to contain the
pollution. The plan will be submitted to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) early next month, he said.
According to the information collected by the CPCB in its comprehensive environmental assessment of industrial clusters late last year, the situation is critical in the most polluted areas. The CPCB report says that industries in these regions discharge effluents at night, primarily to avoid detection.
Villages in the polluted industrial estates of Vapi and Ankleshwar have not had clean drinking water for a long time. The water even in Vapi town is not potable. The incidence of asthma and irritation in the eyes is particularly high in these areas.
There are plans to set up new effluent treatment plants (or increase the capacity of existing ones), and link every industrial unit through a pipeline to the central plant. To tackle air pollution, there is a proposal to shift to cleaner fuel. And for management of solid waste, large-scale clean-up of the contaminated sites is also on anvil.
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