MoEF might ease ban on 'critically polluted areas' by Dec

Initially, a moratorium was imposed on 43 clusters. Official says the ban has already been lifted on 26 such areas

The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) might lift by December the moratorium on industrial expansion in the 17 remaining clusters that had come under the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) classification of ‘critically polluted areas’.

In January 2009, the MoEF had introduced a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) in an effort to categorise the rate of pollution and to judge the environment quality of industrial areas. Based on this, CPCB had later put a ban on environmental clearance to projects in these highly-polluting areas.

Initially, a moratorium was imposed on 43 clusters. “Till now, we have lifted a ban on 26 such areas. We might remove the moratorium on the remaining areas, too, by December,” said a senior official close to the development.

According to the ministry, based on suggestions by CPCB, the respective state pollution control boards are implementing measures to reduce pollution in the remaining areas.

However, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan was not forthcoming on what the final decision would be. “A ban on a lot of these areas was lifted during my predecessor Jairam Ramesh’s time. The CPCB has done a study on the remaining areas and the detailed report is under consideration of the ministry, on whether the ban is to be lifted or not,” she said.  

CEPI is a rational number to characterise the environmental quality at a given location. The index captures various health dimensions of the environment, including air, water and land.

According to the ministry, the present CEPI regulation was more of a warning tool to plan reduction of pollution in those areas through a remedial plan.  The 43 clusters in the first set were from 88 selected by the CPCB and state boards.

In the initial list, there were two clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh (1), Gujarat (6), Haryana (2), Jharkhand (1), Karnataka (2), Kerala (1),  Madhya Pradesh (1), Maharashtra (5), Odisha (3), Punjab (2), Rajasthan (3), Tamil Nadu (4), Uttar Pradesh (6) and West Bengal (3).