‘Work of GPCB is to educate industry, not create fear’

Ahmedabad: The state and central governments are committed to solving issues of industry in the state, which will soon get a Rs 5,000 crore deep sea discharge project, said Gujarat BJP chief and Member of Parliament C R Paatil on Tuesday. He also said that GPCB’s work is to educate people, not to create fear among them. He said effluent treatment should be done by a government agency after collecting all effluent water at one place.Addressing chemical industrialists at an award ceremony organized by Gujarat Dyestuffs Manufacturers’ Association (GDMA), Paatil said he would not say that there is no harassment from the government officers in the state, but there was less harassment by government officers in Gujarat. Remembering his stint as GIDC chairman, he said GPCB should educate industry on how to improve the practices and decrease pollution. It should implement proper planning and it should also work to make industry free of the fear of harassment-causing NGOs, he said.Paatil said all industrial waste water effluent should be collected at one place so it would be diluted to some extent automatically and it should then be processed by a government agency and industry should pay the cost of the treatment. “There should be no primary or secondary treatment at the unit level or CETP because it does not give great results. A deep sea discharge project worth around Rs 5,000 crore is coming and the state government has started allocation for it in this year’s budget. This project will attract industries to Gujarat in a big way. Technology is becoming easier and better and it should be used,” Paatil said.He also said spoke of the Rs 20 lakh crore Covid-19 package given by the central government. “Our PM started the campaign of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and it has improved the sentiment of industry. The PM ensured that no account became an NPA due to the pandemic. If industry has issues with the state or central government, I assure you, they will be resolved,” he said. GDMA president Ramesh Patel said the chemicals sector is participating in the campaign.