Question

Explain environmental consent and authorisation mechanism.

Answer 1

Consent:

• Under the provisions of the Water and Air Acts, an entrepreneur running or establishing any industry or process, and discharging effluent/emitting pollutants into any water resources or on land/air and polluting thereby the environmental water/air is required to obtain consent, which needs to obtained in three phases;
• Consent to Establish: All the industries and activities needing consent must obtain consent to establish before actual commencement of the works for establishing the industry/activity.
• Consent to Operate: This consent needs to be taken before actual commencement of production including trial production. This consent is valid for certain duration.
• Renewal of Consent to Operate: The consent to operate is renewed after certain period.
• Any industry, operation or process or an extension and addition thereto, which is
  likely to discharge sewerage or trade effluent into the environment or likely to emit
  any air pollution into the atmosphere will have to obtain consent of the State
  Pollution Control Board under the provisions of Water (P & CP) Act, 1974 and Air (P &
  CP) Act, 1981.
• Similarly any industry / process generating, storing, transporting, disposing or
  handling hazardous waste as defined Hazardous waste (Handling and Management)
  Rules, 1989, as amended in 2000 are required to obtain authorization from MPC
  Board under the said rules.
• The medical institutions generating biomedical waste as defined in Biomedical Waste
  (Handling and Management) Rules, 1989 are required to obtain Authorisation under
  the said rules.
  Authorisation:
• The standards are prescribed by the Ministry of Environment & Forest and
  Government of India, which are minimum uniform national standards, which cannot
  be relaxed by any authority including CPCB and MPCB. But MPCB can prescribe more
  stringent standards than whatever laid down by the Ministry of Environment & Forest
  and Government of India, taking into consideration the local conditions.
• The authorization for collection/reception/treatment /transport/storage/disposal of
  Hazardous wastes and Biomedical wastes as defined under the rules needs to be
  obtained by Board.
• Monitoring of the industrial unit means sending out the monitoring teams comprised
  of skilled technical & scientific officers to verify the compliance of conditions imposed
  in NOC, Consent, Authorization etc.