Union Government reconstituted Pollution Control Board Working Group

Union government reconstituted Pollution Control Board Working Group to simplify procedures to get consent certificates and categorisation of industries. The working group was reconstituted on 13 January 2015.

The Working Group comprising of 11 members will be headed by the Chairman of the Karnataka SPCB Dr. Ayi Vaman N Acharya.

Terms and References of Working Group
• The group has been asked to submit a report by February 2015, prior to the 59th conference of SPCBs and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs).
• The working group will look into self-declaration or self-regulation of green compliances by industries, increase penalty in case of violation, among other issues.
• The group will develop standard operating procedure and inspection process relating to granting of consent to establish and consent to operate including validity of consents and implementing common consent application forms.
• The group has also been asked to its views on whether to supplement inspection activities of SPCBs or PCCs with third party audit inspection and synchronise multiple inspection under various regulations.
• Besides, it will look into inspection frequency, granting of consents and harmonisation of red, orange and green categories of industries.

The original working group had dealt with same issues but could not submit the report.