Industry has to heed the environment: UPPCB chairman Ravindra Pratap Singh

Singh spoke about the steps being taken to make people environment-conscious

In the era of rapid industrialisation, businesses are required to adopt processes and technologies that are environment-friendly and achieve the goal of sustainability. Ravindra Pratap Singh, chairman of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), in an interview with Siddharth Kalhans in Lucknow said the board had been nudging industries to adopt eco-friendly technologies. He also spoke about the steps being taken to make people environment-conscious. Edited excerpts:

 

Can environmental protection and industries go together?

 

Environmental protection and industries can go and have to go together in order to sustain modern development and achieve the goal of sustainability as technology has made this possible. Industries are necessary for development. UP has set a goal of becoming a trillion-dollar economy and it needs rapid industrialisation. But in order to continue and sustain modern development, environmental protection is a must.

 

 

It is absolutely necessary for industries to adopt processes and technologies which are environment friendly and these technologies will make the industries sustainable in the long term. These are viable and capable of giving better economic return in the long term as well as producing less pollutants. More and more green energy should be used in the industries and you can see that it is being done.

 

Will you promote dialogue with the industry instead of imposing stringent norms directly?

 

Taking harsh steps should be the last resort. The method of dialogue, awareness and convincing industries to adopt eco-friendly technologies, even though little costly, should be the normal practice. We are always open to dialogue and have been doing this also. Creating awareness about the environment among industries as well as the people should go on. It is evident that people have become more aware about environment protection, which is good for society.

 

Getting NOC from UPPCB has always been a big issue for industries. Is this process being made easy?

 

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the government has taken a lot of measures to make the entire system of application of NOCs (no objection certificates) and its disposal totally transparent. The single window system of ‘Nivesh Mitra’ has been introduced for applications for NOC by the industry and their disposal is also being done through the same portal. This 'Nivesh Mitra’ portal has been very helpful. The entire process is also being regularly monitored at the senior management. Things have become easy and now the industries have almost no complaints. The state government’s single window system has been working effectively.

 

It is very common to say development brings destruction. Can this perception be changed?

 

Modern development or you can say the industrial revolution has improved the quality of life of human beings a lot. But it is also true that it has brought many environmental and climatic challenges which are now visible. As mitigating measures to face these challenges and minimise environmental damages, the sustainable development concepts are being introduced in nearly every field of modern development.