State has ranked 3 in polluting industrial units

Telangana has the third largest number of industrial units in the country that fall under the 17 categories of highly polluting industries as categorised by Central Pollution Control Board. As per the reply by Minister of Environment and Forests Dr Harsh Vardhan in the Lok Sabha on Friday, there are 327 units in the State falling under the aforementioned categories, after Maharashtra (553) and Uttar Pradesh (422). The statement was in response to a question raised by Pankaj Chaudhary, MP, Maharajgunj, UP, on the Online Continuous Emission/Effluents Monitoring System, that was mandated as per directions by CPCB in 2014.

 As per directions, all industrial units in the country falling under the 17 categories should install emission monitoring systems that should be connected via internet to the CPCB server, so that the pollution emitted by these industrial units can be monitored 24X7.  According to figures produced by the minister, of the 327 highly polluting industrial units in Telangana, 268 have followed directions of CPCB and have installed the OCEMS and CPCB has issued closure notices to 56 industrial units. Across the country, of the 3,531 industrial units falling under the 17 categories, 2,743 have installed OCEMS and 740 units have been issued closure notices. Pharmaceuticals and pollution menace 

As per the data presented by minister, of the 3,531 highly polluting industrial units in the country, the highest number of units fall under the category of ‘pharmaceuticals’ —676. 17 categories of highly polluting industries are  — Aluminum, Cement, Chloralkali, Copper, Distillery, Dye and Dye intermediaries, Fertilizer, Iron & Steel, Pesticides, Petrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Pulp & Paper, Refinery, Sugar, Tannery, Thermal power plant and Zinc