Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB), the Government agency working to ensure emission-free environment in the State, has gone all out adopting series of reforms in order to ensure speedy and transparent issuance of licenses.
Inputs suggest that as many as 200 consent to establish (CTEs) and consent to operate (CTOs), prerequisites to set up any venture, have been issued to various industries recently falling under the three defined categories.“The Board has done away with the old system of manual application process. Instead, the entire process of applying for CTO and CTE has been made online for green, orange and red type of industries. Any applicant can view status of the application online and submit desired documents,” said Rajiv lochan Bakshi, Member Secretary with the Jharkhand pollution board.
Not only the applications coming in but the JSPCB has also adopted online and real time monitoring of effluents coming out from the industries located in various parts of the State. “This is a feature we have added recently. Devices have been installed at the premises of some industries to begin with in order to transmit exact emission taking place at that moment to the Board’s monitoring system. This has been done under our zero tolerance against pollution motto,” added the official.
At the same time, the Board is up against serious pollution threats coming in the form of biomedical waste generated from hospitals and nursing homes, electronic waste which is on rise now a days and also plastic and other non-biodegradable garbage.
“We have certain plans to deal with these challenges. Installation of incinerators is being made compulsory for the medical institutions to deal with hazardous biomedical wastes and also e-waste. Strict implementation of polythene ban is also taking place,” added Bakshi.
Nevertheless, the JSPCB is living with manpower crunch since most of the positions of experts, technicians and observers along with desired hands into the laboratories are lying vacant.