The Environment Ministry has proposed to classify various industrial sectors across India under a three-coloured scheme depending on their pollution potential. A proposal to classify industries under red, orange and green is among a set of resolutions adopted by a state environment and forests ministers' conference that discussed measures to amend regulations to improve ease-of-doing business while protecting the environment. [related-post] The Ministry is also likely to propose initiative which will allow individual units falling under various sectors to earn stars for compliance with environmental norms. The industrial sectors which will score more than 60 will be categorized as red, those scoring between 30-59 will be orange, 15-29 green and below 15 will be considered as white as they are environment friendly. "We have decided to re-categorize industrial sector depending on their pollution potential. Earlier, the categorization was not reflecting the pollution potential. This is an important step," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters. The Ministry is also going to do away with renewal or certification of industries on a yearly basis. "We want to do away with every year renewal of the industries. We have suggested five years renewal for red category, ten years for orange and one time certification for green," he said. During the conference, a committee was formed which constitutes state representatives and it has been given one month's time. The proposed scheme will reduce the frequency at which industries currently need to seek approvals for continuing operations. Elaborating about the proposal, an Environment Ministry official said a set of 17 industries, including thermal power plants, cement factories, tanneries, among others, which are now labelled as grossly-polluting will be assigned pollution scores of 60 and above and assigned red colour and will need to seek certification once in five years. Industries assigned scores between 30 and 59 will be labelled Orange and will need to seek approval once in 10 years. Industries assigned scores below 15 will need to apply only once for lifetime certification. Ministry sources said that one of the benefits of such categorisation is that new industry which fall under the red colour category will be allowed to set up in areas where it would not harm nearby areas as they are highly polluting. The Ministry will also propose star rating for individual units within each sector under which ratings will be given to units which comply by environment norms better. If cement sector has been categorized as red, we are proposing that ratings will be given to individual units within the cement sector for complying with standards, a source said. Javadekar also said that the last date for putting up 24x7 monitoring mechanism for waste which has been mandated for 3,206 industries falling under 17 critically polluting sectors on the Ganga river basin, have set for June 30. "By June 30, these industries will have to put up the mechanism for monitoring. After June 30, no extension will be granted," Javadekar said. He said that presently only 30 per cent of sewage generated in cities are being treated and stressed that it has to be increased more "aggressively".
