At a time when the air pollution season is at its peak in India and world leaders have gathered at the Azeri capital of Baku for the Conference of Parties (COP29) meet, the Environment Ministry has released a notification that now allows ‘white category’ sector to establish and operate industries without obtaining two major approvals.
In two gazette notifications dated November 12, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFC) has exempted the ‘non-polluting’ units citing the need to curb the compliance burden.
“The Government of India has accepted long-standing demand of industry to remove dual compliance of Environmental Clearance (EC) and Consent to Establish (CTE) for setting up of new industries. Now, non-polluting white category industries will not be required to take CTE or Consent to Operate (CTO) at all,” a press statement issued on the same date as the gazettes, mentioned.
“The industries who have taken EC will not be required to take CTE. This will not only reduce compliance burden, but also prevent duplication of approvals. Notifications to this effect have been issued by MoEFCC under the Air Act and Water Act,” it added.
Industries that are officially deemed as causing minimal or negligible pollution fall in the ministry’s white category. There are a total of 39 such industries in the official list mentioned in the gazettes.
The government’s announcement of reducing the compliance burden for these industries was not welcomed by the experts who demanded that regulatory mechanisms are much needed especially at a time when pollution pervades through every aspect of life in an unprecedented manner.
“The doing away of the dual approvals to establish and operate these industries sends a wrong message across the industries. There are certain industries in the list of white categories which should be regulated,” Nivit Yadav, Director of Industrial Pollution unit at Delhi-based Centre of Science and Environment (CSE), told Down To Earth (DTE).
“The pollution audits of these industries could have been made less frequent but an absolute exemption goes against the letter and spirit of environmental action,” the expert added.
Meanwhile, Parth Kumar, Programme Manager of the same unit in CSE highlighted that the fly ash brick and fly ash block manufacturing units are also classified in the ‘white category’ and opined that such industrial activity cannot be given such an exemption.
“The fly ash brick making units certainly release toxins in the air. Doing away with the much needed approvals for such an industry doesn’t bode well especially at a time when the air quality index in the national capital is in the severe category,” Kumar told DTE.
The MoEFCC notification has been circulating on social media, attracting criticism from journalists, experts and even celebrities.
Randeep Hooda, a renowned actor in the popular Hindi cinema, posted on X [formerly Twitter] and condemned the decision by highlighting that the government is promoting ease of doing business when it’s hard to breathe.
“Norms diluted for pollution control will have far reaching consequences, resulting in serious health issues. Look at what we have done to Delhi , can’t turn the entire country into gas chamber!!” he posted while retweeting an original post authored by Bahar Dutt, a environment journalist.
“Just take a look at the timing of this notification -most of us struggle to breathe in the city, @moefcc [Environment Ministry] issues a notice on industries exempt from taking permission from state #pollution control board. To ensure ‘ease of doing business’ says the press release,” Dutt had posted.