Not in my backyard

Shut down: the age of reason s (Credit: Ashok Nath Day / Express Photo)NOVEMBER 29, 1996, the residents of
Delhi were, as usual, cohabiting with a
smoke-filled sky and toxic wastes in
water and food. December I saw the
same standards. On the face of it, nothing really seems to have changed. Even
following the Supreme Court (SC) verdict that after November 30, 1996, all
polluting industries must move out of
Delhi to other places in the National
Capital Region (NCR), the people of
Delhi lived resigned to the cauldron of
seething pollution.

In all, 168 units were shut down,
among them 22 stone crusheries, the
Idgah abbatoir, and several rubber and
metal recycling units located in the congested colonies of Delhi, identified as
heavily polluting and hazardous.

Some section of the industry lobby
found the move positive. S K Jain, consultant with the environment cell of the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII),
while welcoming the development,
agreed that at present the focus should
be on what technological options the
relocated industries are likely to
adopt. According to him, the SC order
would definitely "shake the errant units
and enforcement agencies out of their
sluggishness". One look at the statistics
proves that the shifting of 168 industries
is only a mild warning to the massive
cleaning up of the environment of the
capital city that demands a long-term
plan and stringent enforcement. Factory
units in Delhi - numbering nearly a
lakh - contribute to about 20 per cent
of the city's pollution.

But industry accounts for nearly
one-third of the revenue earned by the
capital city of Delhi. But among 93,000
units, only 10,000 have the necessary
clearance from the Central Pollution-
Control Board (CPCB). In actuality, only
3 1,000 have licenses from the Municipal
Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

There have been several efforts now
and then by the authorities to conduct
checks on smaller polluting units, which
really did not create much flutter. In
fact, the only effort that made some
impact was the setting up of the NCR
Planning Board in April 1994, to coordinate the task of relocation of industries. But the total number of industries
in Delhi had already touched 93,000 in
1994 from 81,000 in 1990,(Down To
Earth, Vol 3, No 1). And experts admit
that the task is mammoth. Soli Sorabjee,
former attorney general of India, while
speaking at a recent national workshop
on legal regulations of hazardous
substances in New Delhi, said,
"Action against erring industries is
fine, but all this requires social and
Political will, especially as the shifting of
industries have several social and other
consequences.

The problem is that despite there
being two drafts of the Delhi master
pian (MPD), formulated in 1962 and
100, which has spelt out clearly that
Delhi should remain a 'non-pollution
zone', the advantages of operating in the
NCR is manifold. For the factories, the
economics works out to be much cheaper
in Delhi with less erratic power supply,
readily available transportation, cheap
skilled as well as unskilled labour and an
expanding, thriving market than anywhere else in the NCR.

Of these 93,000 units, majority
function on a shoestring budget. To cut
corners and increase profits, all kinds of
subterfuges are brought into play. This
include using waste rubber as fuel and
recycling plastic and lead, despite there
being reports in the past of toxic after-
maths in Delhi's congested industrialised colonies (Down To Earth, Vol 3,
No 14). And surprisingly, the environment protection act does not lay down
any strict regulation to check hazards
originating from such units.

The only solution seems to lie with
the environment-friendly technological
options after the factories are relocated.
Says Jain, "There has to be a clear tilt
towards clean technology which is resource - efficient and low waste-
generating. The present norms and the
new ones to be adopted should be
extensively compared from unit to
unit." He informed that the CII had set
up a technology information cell (TIC)
in November 1995, to promote cleaner
technologies. Emphasising that the TIC
has been working in collaboration with
several other nodal agencies in the
country, Jain said, "Basically, it is the
resource consumption norms followed
by the factories that we are aiming to
standardise."

In 1990, Maneka Gandhi, former
Union environment and forests minister, had initiated a 'door-to-door' survey of about 8,000 of Delhi's factories.
Later, the survey got scuttled. When
asked, Jain pleaded ignorance about the
survey and admitted that there still has
to be a comprehensive inventory available on polluting industries in Delhi.

Although it is quite natural that the
axe will fall upon industries located in
non-conforming areas (residential and
commercial zones), conforming areas
seem to be going scot-free housing
industrial units that are reportedly,
exceeding all pollution standards. In
fact, two years ago, a CII-CPCB review
clearly stated that factories in industrial
estates are operating beyond permissible water/air pollution limits. Even
these have to be hauled up.

There is actually no 'inner agency' to
check the erring industries, feel experts.
The CPCB is only an 'outer agency'. N K
Verma, senior environmental engineer,
CPCB, told Down To Earth that very few
factory inspectors have been submitting
regular "clear-cut" reports to the
authorities regarding the degree and
kind of pollution caused by Delhi's factories. Most of these officials are either
evasive or too overburdened, considering the gigantic growth of industry in
the city. Also, so far
there is no technological incentive announced
by the government in terms of economics.
Referring to this, justice
J S Verma said, "The
cost of polluting has
always proved to be less
than the cost of acquiring an environment-friendly technology.
The erring factories
know this. States which
house the NCR areas, are clamouring for
the Delhi government to foot the bill for
the infrastructure after relocation and
not take their own initiative."

This means that after relocation, the
polluting industries will start dirtying
the environs of the new areas where they
set up plants. H Daur of the Hind
Mazdoor Sabha says, "Although the factories have been asked to shift, no modernisation drive has been announced by
anybody yet. Even if there is one, from
where will the new skilled labourers
come? Evidently, infrastructure has to
be improved beyond road, transportation or electricity." And this also calls
for safer health standards, he said.

Already, there are reports of protests
and public meetings from Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh, said Tarun Bose of the
National Alliance for Peoples Movement-
Delhi chapter (NAPM). "The people in
places like Alwar are apprehensive that
the units from Delhi will come to pollute their region. There have also been
complaints of land-grabbing by units
facing closure in Delhi," said Bose.

Regarding adhearance to clean standards, Verma says, "Actually, right now,
the best option for us is site-specific
relocation. This not only means that an
industry which produces silicon should
shift to where sand is found aplenty, but
also that the degree of pollution by the
unit has to be reduced by seeing whether
it is water that should be more polluted
in that site, or land or air, leaving out to
safeguard whichever has been heavily
polluted so far."

The 20-year old vexed issue has seen
many evasive tactics. With factories
mushrooming all over, suspected to be
procuring permits from the MCD under
the very nose of the CPCB, one has but to
agree to what Jag Parvesh Chandra,
leader of the Opposition, Delhi assembly once said, "Delhi is the mistress of many but the beloved of none."