The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (“Board”) in a notification dated 29th May 2019, has issued a Comprehensive Inspection Policy with a view to facilitate Ease of Doing Business for the concerned employer / entrepreneur / occupier.
Applicability:
This policy covers the following Acts and Rules (as applicable) to the concerned employer / entrepreneur / occupier:
- Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
- Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981
- Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016
Key Highlights:
- The following measures have been taken to facilitate Ease of Doing Business:
- A system for identifying establishments that need to be inspected based on computerized risk assessment has been designed and implemented. Compliance inspection requirements are differentiated based on category of industry i.e. Red (high risk), Orange (medium risk) and Green (low risk).
- Green category industries with a history of satisfactory compliance have been exempted from environmental compliance inspections. However, inspection may be required only in case of Public Complaints, Legal cases or other causes.
- Surprise inspection or inspections will be conducted based on complaints with specific permissions from the Member Secretary of the Board.
- Inspecting officials have been directed to submit inspection reports online within 48 working hours of conducting inspections and users can login to the Board’s portal and view and download submitted inspection reports relating to their units.
- Frequency of Inspections based on categorization of risk
a. The frequency of compliance inspections will be based on categorization of industries as per CPCB categorization under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 as mentioned below:
- Red (High Risk),
- Orange (Medium Risk) and
- Green (Low Risk).
- Unique Identification of Industries:
Each of the industries registered under the Board will be allotted a unique identification number known as “UNIT CODE”. This number will be allotted to each registered unit and will have to be mentioned to the Third Party during engagement for inspection by the industry.
Source: West Bengal Pollution Control Board
