Environmental Performance Bank Guarantee scheme on anvil in Orissa.

In a bid to protect the environment, the State Government has come up with an Environmental Performance Bank Guarantee (EPGB) scheme. It has got the support of all the upcoming industries on a long term basis. A notification to this effect will soon be issued and the upcoming new industries will be appraised of the State's latest move to make stringent all the pollution control norms and regulations.
The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) is currently working out the benchmark for the bank guarantee depending on the nature and type of industry. Existing norms suggests that the all industries will have to provide a bank guarantee against installation of pollution control equipments (PCEs) within their premises. In the new formula, the SPCB will be primarily gauging the effective utilisation of the PCEs by the industries. It has been found that most of the industrial houses are just ignoring the Government's guidelines and do not operate the PCEs in the right direction.
Taking it seriously, the SPCB is working out modalities where bank guarantees provided by erring industries will be forfeited if they are found not to comply with pollution norms. Recently many sponge iron units were penalised for not conforming to Air Pollution Control Prevention norms they had the required PCEs, said a senior official of the Pollution Control Board.It was in the absence of the proper utilisation that SPCB issued orders for closing down these units.
It may be noted the State is witnessing rapid industrialisation in the last six to seven years. Keeping it in mind, the SPCB has decided to revise its existing pollution norms and make it stringent wherever possible for a better compliance of pollution control standards from these industries. The news EPCB system is likely to include a bank guarantee benchmark of 1-3 years. This would be the stipulated period within which an industry will be ask to comply with environment standards, failing which the guarantee would be forfeited with no chance for a taking back of the money.
Though most of the industries have the PCES facilities, they just use to operate it on an effective manner with an intention to maximize their profits. The whole of the State has already been declared an AIR pollution Control areas and therefore all industries coming up in these State will have to conform to such norms.

The Government is also planning ways to fine polluting units through the setting of a polluter pay scheme where the money connected in an environment relief fund. This will be the first time that an erring industrial unit will have to pay for its faults in cash together with other penal provisions imposed on it. The fine would be measured on the basis on the environment damage cost.