Himachal Pradesh decides to levy heavy penalty

CHANDIGARH: On the recommendation of the River Rejuvenation Committee (RRC), the

Himachal Pradesh

Pollution Control Board (HPPCB) has decided to impose heavy penalties on those found to be polluting the already “critically polluted” seven rivers of the state. These rivers are: Sukhna, Markanada, Sirsa, Ashwani, Beas, Giri and Pabbar. The polluters will be fined on the basis of environment compensation formula.


According to an official of the HPPCB, formula for

penalty

or environment compensation is based on ‘polluter pays principle’ prepared by the RRC. The amount of the penalty is deduced based on various parameters, like categories of individual, organization or industry, number of days of violation, intensity of pollution, and affected area with dense or scarce population. More the pollution, bigger will be the amount of environmental compensation.

The department concerned at the district level will monitor the pollution in those districts where the rivers flow. For instance, industries will keep vigil on industrial units dumping effluents into rivers, municipal corporation will keep tab on garbage and plastic disposal while urban development will look after sewage disposal. These departments will give their report to the district level RRC. The HPSPCB has already submitted its action plan on mitigating the impact of pollution and revival of clean water flow in these rivers before the NGT.

The RRC comprises director, urban development department of Himachal Pradesh and team from IIT Kanpur and National Institute of Hydrology Roorkee. It is headed by an official at the level of additional chief secretary in HP.

The NGT had warned to shut down culprit industries and prosecute individuals and heads of the locals for polluting the rivers in order to make the individuals and entities accountable for causing pollution. The main causes of river pollution were identified as untreated and effluent waste, garbage, plastic, biomedical , e-waste, solid waste, diversion of rivers, encroachment on catchment and flood plains, river mining and over drawl of groundwater.

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