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‘Need for greater corporate sector role to control pollution’

PTI - New Delhi

The government has sought enhanced role by the corporate sector in tackling the problem of pollution and assured all possible assistance to it for implementing pollution control measures.

Stating this here at a national seminar on corporate responsibility for environmental protection, the Lok Sabha speaker Mr Manohar Joshi said, “We are committed to provide assistance to industrial units, particularly those located in rural areas to aid the implementation of pollution control measures.”

He emphasised on the need for a comprehensive approach to integrate environmental concerns and economic aspects in developmental planning and said, “Parliament is fully aware of the gravity of situation caused by the increasing level of environmental degradation.” Mr Joshi also released a document ‘Environmental management in selected industrial sectors: Status and needs’ prepared by the Central Pollution Control Board.

He said there was considerable scope for improving resource efficiency in the domestic industries and to regularly update on technology front. “In fact all possibilities should be exploited to see that the waste generated by one industrial unit could be used as raw material for another product,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the environment and forests minister Mr T R Baalu said, “Without corporate commitment, the goals of environmental protection cannot be achieved and hence a partnership between government and industries should be evolved to achieve for protecting environment.” He said, “Several important issues were raised by the industry and I assure that some of the pending issues will receive our attention.”

Complimenting the industry for formulating the ‘corporate responsibility for environmental protection’ charter, Mr Baalu said “Legislative whip alone cannot solve the problem of environmental pollution.” Without corporate commitment, the goals of environmental protection cannot be achieved, he said adding, to support clean technologies, the customs duty on components of membrane cell technology used in caustic soda industry has been reduced from 15 per cent to five per cent. “I hope such fiscal incentives for controlling systems and clean technologies will help the industry,” he added.

Mr Joshi said special emphasis must be laid on the prescribed environmental standards and environmental management plans. The same should apply to environment audit which major industries should be made to accept and follow, he said. It is very important for them to ensure strict adherence to transport, storage, treatment and disposal norms and to adopt effective waste recyclic measures, he added.

The charter marks a paradigm shift from the regulatory enforcement of pollution norms to voluntary compliance by the industry to significantly enhance the environment quality, an official statement stated.

The preparatory work in this regard has been completed as the government held discussions with the representatives of 17 major polluting categories of industry in the capital city, the statement said.

Speaking on the issue, the Union environment and forests minister Mr T R Baalu said several industrial units had installed pollution control systems but their operations and maintenance were not satisfactory, the statement said. The charter seeks to considerably reduce air and water pollution with industry voluntarily agreeing to take up modernisation of production processes and installation of necessary systems to reduce polluting effluents and other solid wastes, the statement said.

This will be achieved through water and energy conservation, decreased use of raw materials, better monitoring of air and water quality, adoption of waste minimisation options, better work practices and housekeeping, it added.

It also enables the industry to know government programmes and concerns relating to 17 categories of major polluting industries and give appropriate time for implementing action points identified in the sectoral discussions, it added.