Haryana Government has introduced an ‘inspection policy’ to streamline and simplify the process of inspections of the units or industries in the State.
A spokesman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) on Friday said that the policy aims at inspection of industries and projects for checking the compliance of the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and Rules made under it.
He said that schedule of mandatory inspections has been conceived in such a manner that only less than 20 per cent of the total consent applied or granted units including projects, industries and establishments are inspected in any financial year.
The selection of industries would be done through a system developed for identifying the establishments that need to be inspected, based on computerised risk assessment considering the different compliance requirements and prevailing categorisation of industry. Other than mandatory inspections, there may be a requirement to inspect in other circumstances like in compliance of 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 said that every inspection would be carried out after permission of the competent authority except in the case of inspection of those illegal units which are found established and operating without consent to establish (CTE) and Consent to operate (CTO) of the Board.
A computerised system would be designed and developed for computerised allocation of the inspectors. The same inspecting officer of the Board would not inspect the same unit twice consecutively. However, no inspection is required for the purpose of dealing the cases of CTE unless violation comes to the notice of the Board.
Self certification for compliance of prescribed policies and norms would be considered sufficient to decide the consent to establish applications subject to submission of complete application alongwith prescribed documents and consent fee, he added.
The category wise list of all units covered under consent management and Bio Medical Waste (BMW) Rules would be uploaded in the software system to be developed by the Board for implementation of inspection policy and the same would be updated from time to time by the concerned regional officers.
He said that the periodicity of inspections or sampling of various units by the authorized officers of the Board under various categories for existing units would be three years for 17 type highly polluting industries defined by the Central Pollution Control Board (among red category), five years for Red category of industries other than those mentioned in the 17 type highly polluting industries and seven years for Orange category of industries.
The inspection of only those units against which complaints would be received only through CM Window portal, District level Grievance Committees and otherwise by Deputy Commissioners, would be done by the authorised officers of the Board with
due permission of
competent authority.
Under the policy, the units which are found not complying with the prescribed standards, for discharging environmental pollutants, due to inadequate Pollution Control Devices (PCDs) or improper operation of the same, such units after making up-gradation or making rectification in the component of PCDs or after sorting out their operational problems, could request the Board to get their units inspected for verification of the same. Such units can also request for re-sampling afresh to prove the compliance of the prescribed standards and to avoid the legal or closure action against their units.
The spokesman said that the industries are at liberty to get the samples of their effluent or air emissions or noise as applicable, analysed either from the Board’s lab or from any other lab recognized by the Board for the purpose of renewal of CTO.
The reports of all the inspections or samplings would be made by the officer inspecting the industries and projects through online system within 48 hours of each inspection to the Head Office, stating the outcome of inspection as per prescribed format for industries or projects under Water Act, 1974, Air Act, 1981 and EP Rules and for Health Care Units under BMW Rules which would also be accessible to the concerned units, added the spokesman.