TN Pollution Control Board second best in country: Study

TN Pollution Control Board second best in country: Study

Oppili.P@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 16.08.2021

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has been adjudged the second best board in the country.

New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which ranked State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBSs)/ Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) based on public disclosure, studied them for 18 parameters over a period of one year.

Lab infrastructure and accreditation, latest technical publications, show cause and closure notices, public hearing, waste management and action plan for pollution control were some of the important criteria used for ranking the boards.

TNPCB chairman A V Venkatachalam told TOI that the CSE collected the data for its study from two sources. The first is website of state PCBs/ PCCs and the annual reports of each board. The organisation, which collected the last of its data in June this year, in its report said: “We have carried out this study based on the list of indicators and rating criteria.”

It further said that the rationale of this scoring methodology was to give more weightage to statutory indicators which must be available in public domain like information on board of members, number of board meetings, directions, consent information, compliance status of industry, inspection, accounts and financial details and manpower details.”

The SPCB/PCC website is an important source for the dissemination of information among various stakeholders and the people. A good website keeps all the information under the relevant heading for easy navigation so that anyone can easily access environmental information available on the SPCB website, whenever required.

Every state board must establish a laboratory to enable the board to perform its functions efficiently under the Water and Air Acts. It is also important that all SPCBs/PCCs share at least basic information about their laboratory on their websites like number of laboratories in the state, accreditation of lab, parameters which can be analysed in lab and contact details.

Of 34 SPCBs/PCCs, those in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram provided a significant amount of information on laboratory infrastructure and accreditation of their laboratories, the report said.

The TNPCB has been taking all proactive measures to improve its functioning. Soon more new projects including an early warning system will be launched, Venkatachalam said.