Question

Outline the important features of environmental clearance and authorisation mechanism?

Answer 1

Clearance:

• Normally the MPCB's No Objection Certificate (NOC) in the form of combined Consent to establishment under Water Act, Air Act & Hazardous wastes Rules would be required for setting up of an industrial unit.
• In regard to 39 specified industrial and infrastructure projects, environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF), Government of India (GoI) and State Environment Department are also required as per Environmental Impact Assessment Notification dtd.14/09/2006.
• For the industrial units, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) sites and other developmental activities located on the coastal stretches of bays, estuaries, creeks, rivers and back waters, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance also is required.

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. Monitoring includes performance evaluation of Environment Management System (EMS) in respect of Board's notices/directives and checking the compliance of Environmental Clearance conditions and that no violation of law takes place. MPCB has set up mechanisms to analyse the reports received from the monitoring teams and the laboratory verifies the samples and also verifies the compliance of other techno-legal requirements that the unit has to comply with. Based upon the findings so arrived at enforcement measures are taken. In certain cases surprise checking through vigilance squad are also carried out.