Delhi Smog: Not just parali, 1/4th industries in Punjab are environment non-compliant
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 28: For years, Punjab has been seen as tormentor of Delhi by allowing farmers in the state to burn ‘parali (crop residue)’ with impunity. With Delhi’s topography blamed for trapping the dust-laden pollutants, Punjab’s contribution to the never ending problem of pollution in the national capital is also on account of excessive polluting industries.
The government in a written reply to a Starred question said in the Lok Sabha that while Punjab has a total of 25374 industries, 6293 of them don’t comply with the environmental norms. This amounts to almost every fourth industry in Punjab not complying with environment standards as laid down by the government.
The Ministry of Environment in its written reply further said that there has been no legal action yet against any of the industries for flouting the environment standard. A total of 2906 industries have closed down in Punjab on “their own”, added the Ministry.
Out of 22468 operational industries in Punjab, the Ministry said in its reply that 16175 of them comply with environmental standards. The government has so far issued show cause notices to 4452 industries for not obeying the environmental norms.
In contrast, Haryana has a total of 12307 industries out of which 11123 are operational and only 167 of them are non-compliant to the environmental standards. Incidentally, the Central government had also highlighted the contrast between Punjab and Haryana in dealing with the issue of burning of ‘parali’. While Haryana had substantially cut down the instances of ‘parali’ burning, Punjab had one again failed to take action against the erring farmers while the people in the national capital were exposed to months of smog.
Rajasthan, bordering Delhi, also has 10 per cent of the operational industries not complying with the environmental standards, the government informed the Lok Sabha. Out of the total 41451 industries there are 34973 operational and 3796 of them don’t comply with the environment norms.
“Daily monitoring of Active Fire Events (AFEs) is done during stubble burning period and reports are shared with Commission on Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining areas for suitable action,” the government said on measures taken to mitigate excessive air pollution in the national capital, which brings a carpet of smog from October to December each year.
The Ministry also stated that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has framed guidelines for promoting setting up of paddy straw-based pelletization and torrefaction plants which may help in addressing the supply chain issues. “Scheme will address the issue of open burning of paddy straw in agriculture fields in Northern Region. A corpus of Rs. 50 crores have been sanctioned from EPC funds. Assuming complete utilization of the corpus, over 1 million metric tonnes of paddy straw based pellets are expected to be generated every year,” added the Ministry.
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