Can data prove to be the nemesis of India’s polluting industries?
Only if pollution boards can get industrial units to comply with a new tribunal order. 2 hours ago Representative image: Smoke billows from a factory chimney during smoggy morning in Ajmer on November 2, 2020. | AFP/Himanshu Sharma
In a powerful ruling that could increase transparency and thus, industry compliance, India’s National Green Tribunal has directed all pollution control boards to chart and share detailed data from continuous emissions and effluents monitoring systems or OCEMS from specific polluting industrial units by April 9.
The tribunal, set up 11 years ago specifically for expeditious disposal of cases pertaining to environmental issues, was following up on a Supreme Court order from 2017 directing all Indian states to install OCEMS and make their industrial emissions data publicly available – something several states have still not done.