Closure notices slapped on 141 polluting units

The Centre has issued closure notices to 141 polluting units, especially those along the Ganga, for not installing pollution monitoring devices, and action is being initiated against the rest 403 industries.

Besides these, 321 industries are currently closed and orders are being issued to ensure that they reopen only after installation of these devices.

Addressing the media here on Monday, Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar said notices had been issued to 3,145 highly polluting industries for installation of 24x7 continuous effluent and emission monitoring systems last year. "Of them, 1,475 have already installed these devices and 805 industries will complete the process by the end of this month."

The minister said by end of this month 2,280 industries would be equipped with the monitoring systems.

The 24x7 continuous monitoring systems cover emission parameters like Particulate Matter, Sulphur Di-oxide, Nitrogen Di-oxide, Carbon mono-oxide, and Ammonia and effluent parameters.

"The 24x7 Real Time Monitoring of Pollution from various industries is a major revolution brought in by the NDA Government. Earlier method of physical sampling and lab testing was found to be inadequate as it could not capture pollution levels all 24 hours. With on-line monitoring the situation has completely changed and monitoring can be done continuously. The industries now are taking steps to install new equipment to meet environmental norms. We shall also bring about necessary changes in law to enable use of on-line data as legal evidence," said Javadekar.