Commissioner Secretary Department of Forest, Environment & Ecology, Sarita Chauhan today reviewed the functioning of Pollution Control Board, here at a meeting.
The meeting was attended by Chairman, PCB Suresh Chugh; Member Secretary, B.M. Sharma; Special Secretary (Technical), Forest Department, Parveen Raghav; Regional Director, PCB, Jammu, Dr. Syed Nadeem Hussain; Regional Director, PCB, Kashmir, Mohammad Rafi; Director Finance, Forests department, R.S. Bali; Director Planning, Parvaiz Ahmad Handoo; Additional Secretary Forests department, Deep Raj; and other senior officers from the Administrative Department and PCB.
Speaking at the meeting, the Commissioner Secretary, Environment, Ecology & Forest urged the Board to play a more pro-active role in spreading awareness among stakeholders and public in general regarding environmental norms in simple actionable terms. She further added that duties & roles have to be fixed for the implementing authorities also, in order to make compliances to various environmental norms. She further added that the Board shall issue directions to the concerned authorities to make sure that common Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP)s are installed in all existing and upcoming Industrial Estates and PCB shall guide them in this regard.
She enjoined upon the PCB officials to work with greater commitment and responsibility, since PCB plays key role in maintaining conducive ecology & environment to the people.
Meanwhile, the Chairman highlighted the role of PCB as a regulatory authority for various Environmental laws and rules. He also highlighted the challenges faced by the Board in meeting the increased mandate in view of recent orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Earlier, Member Secretary, PCB gave a detail presentation on over all functioning of the Board and the achievements made. He gave a detailed account of the Monitoring and regulating activities of the Board. He said that special efforts have been made by the Board to deal with the non-biodegradable items and 23 units have been closed, which were producing these banned items. He added that regular monitoring of Air & Water is being done at the designated sites and reports are being sent on portal of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).