Greener and tougher

the government proposes to pass a National Environment Protection Act which would replace all the existing national and state-level pollution control rules and regulations. The Act might include a new pollution control tax called environmental cess.

The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) recently finalised the Draft Environment Protection Bill, 1996 and would soon submit it to the ministry of environment and forests, which is eager to get the bill converted into a new Act through the Parliament. The Act would also appoint one nation-wide implementing authority and rename and restructure the cpcb as the National Environment Protection Authority, with its state-level subsidiaries called State Environment Protection Authority.

The new Act is primarily aimed at removing the loopholes and complexities inherent in the existing Acts and to have a uniform authority to ensure the total compliance of environment protection rules.