Govt. may book firms for choking Mumbai

 

Mumbai: In a bid to rein in the choking rate of pollution, the state is considering to prosecute industrial units, which defile the environment. The government, in fact, plans to slap charges on these companies under Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for being a public nuisance.
    Worried that the high pollution grade awarded to the eight cities in Maharashtra might affect the development of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, the state is now drawing an action plan to clean up these areas.
    A few months ago, the Central Pollution Control Board, along with Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, released a report, giving the details of some of the most polluted areas across the country.
From Maharashtra, eight towns and cities have made it to the list, which are Navi Mumbai, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Tarapur, Chembur, Nashik, Dombivli, Aurangabad and Chandrapur. Except Chandrapur, all the others are included in the industrial corridor and the Union environment ministry has stayed the setting up of new commercial units in those places.
    “Plan is on to prepare a monthly report on the pollution levels at these places and also list out the corrective measures. For instance, in Chandrapur, bulk transportation of coal and cement in open trucks add to air pollution. It has now been decided that only covered trucks will be used for ferrying such materials,’’ said an official.
    The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), which has industrial estates in most of the enlisted places that have been given the “most-polluted” tag, will be asked to take up the
    task of putting in technologies to clean up the environment there. Fifty km from the city is Dombivli, which is home to a large population of the city’s workforce. This area, which has quite a few MIDC units, is mainly polluted owing to “malfunctioning” of the common effluent treatment plants there. State environment minister Suresh Shetty said to rein in pollution in such areas, co-ordination was required among the government departments, such as the urban local bodies, PWD and the MIDC. They should ensure the implementation of the corrective measures and also monitor them, the minister said. “Several units, worth hundreds of crores of rupees, cannot be started unless the pollution level is first brought under control. This is also affecting non-polluting industries such as research institutes,’’ Shetty added.
Officials said the government would also approach the energy ministry and use mining d eve l o p m e n t funds to set up technologies for water and sewage management.