Every industry is liable to pay water cess: Govt

Every person running an industry and every local authority using water irrespective of sources from where water is drawn is liable to pay cess on quantity of water consumed by them, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Lok Sabha today.
"Water cess is levied and collected from industries and local authorities by the State Pollution Control Board and Pollution Control Committees of the respective state government and Union Territory and is remitted to the Consolidated Fund of India every month," he said during Question Hour.
Javadekar said water cess is not levied on hydro-power units and industries consuming less than 10 kilo liters of water daily but this exemption is not available to industries generating hazardous waste.

The Minister said SPCBs and PCC are allowed to utilise 50 per cent of the total amount of water cess reimbursed to them on their establishment and office operations.
Replying a question, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said that in November 2013, the Central Board of Secondary Education had introduced School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Scheme which is a process of assessment and accreditation aiming at continuous quality improvement through self analysis and self monitoring of quality enhancement process.
"Accordingly, being CBSE affiliated schools, all Kendriya Vidyalayas were directed to initiate the process of getting accreditation from CBSE," she said.

Irani said extra and remedial classes are held for students of KVs to assist them to prepare for various academic and professional competitions.

Irani said curricular and co-curricular activities like quizzes, olympiads, are regularly conducted which improve the general awareness of the students.
"Students are provided facilities and opportunities to access various online content such as national Repository of open Educational Resources of NCERT, CBSE e-Library etc," she said.