By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Jun: The Pollution Control Board (PCB) of the state has issued notices to more than 300 industrial and commercial establishments in the last three months for polluting the environment. Apparently, this has been done in view of the recent High Court directions. Notices have also been issued to some government institutions for the same reason. In fact, some establishments have been issued notice of closure by the PCB, which has not been done so far. It remains to be seen how many of these units or establishments are actually closed down by the PCB. In view of these notices, there is some panic in industrial and commercial establishments as they are surprised by the action of the PCB, which has had a reputation of being a mute spectator to even the gross violations of the environmental norms.
That the PCB has suddenly woken up and begun taking rapid action, can be gauged from the fact that from the beginning of the current financial year till now, notices have been issued to 378 establishments. This action has been taken by the Pollution Control Board under the Air and Water Act. Under this, the conditions under which NOC was given to these institutions were not being followed. In such a situation, after receiving complaints in the Pollution Control Board, notices have been issued to such institutions.
The establishments which have been issued notices also include a n number of hotels in Mussoorie. Due to the heavy influx of tourists in Mussoorie, hundreds of hotels are in business here. During a recent survey cum investigation by the Pollution Control Board, it was found that many hotels were operating without obtaining the mandatory NOC. Not only this, the standards are also not being followed in many hotels. In such a situation, eight hotels have already been closed, so far. Apart from this, notices have been issued to many hotels. Many leading and well-known hotels have also come under the purview of the action of the Pollution Control Board.
It may be recalled that the Pollution Control Board takes action under the Environment Protection Act. The Water Act is not being followed by many institutions and some institutions are not following even the rules of the Air Act. In view of this, Pollution Control Board has given a strong message to the industry and businessmen by not being negligent this time.
The board has issued two types of notices to government and private institutions for not following the standards. Show cause notices have been issued to some institutions. These are the institutions against which either complaints were received or which were found not to be in accordance with the standards during the inspection. Now an explanation has been sought from these institutions for this and further action will be taken after their reply is received. During this time, closure notices have also been issued by the Pollution Control Board. These are the institutions which were earlier given show cause notices but the responses filed by the parties concerned were not found to be satisfactory and hence closure notices have been issued to them. After the issuance of this notice, they will have to close these establishments for the time being and they will also need to submit a satisfactory reply to the board again before resuming the business.
As compared to the past 3 months, last year, only a handful of the notices were issued.
It may be recalled that some months ago, senior IFS officer Parag Madhukar Dhakate, who is also a special secretary to Chief Minister, had taken over as the new member secretary of the Board. After his appointment, the action of the board has seen some acceleration, but the major reason seems to be the fact that the Board has been pulled up by the Uttarakhand High Court over its inaction.
