Key Highlights
- Small industries, housing projects and commercial complexes will come under a proposed green audit and monitoring system.
- Project proponents will have to submit online progress reports on measures taken to meet environmental conditions.
- Inspection teams will visit project sites and match ground-level compliance with reports submitted online.
- Commercial projects will face closer monitoring of water-treatment facilities and systems installed to control carbon emissions.
- Environmental compliance is proposed to be reviewed every month at the state level, with penalties for violations or discrepancies.
- Work carried out against remediation and environmental compensation requirements will also face closer verification after irregularities were found in some cases.
Ranchi: Jharkhand is preparing to introduce environmental monitoring of small industries, housing projects and commercial complexes, with online compliance reports to be checked against conditions at the project site. The move follows instances of environmental violations detected during scrutiny of projects in different cities. The proposed system will cover compliance with environmental clearance conditions and provide for penalties where violations or discrepancies are found.
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Online Reports to Be Matched With Ground Inspection
Under the proposed system, project proponents will have to submit online progress reports on environmental measures from the start of a project. Representatives of the pollution control authorities will conduct site inspections and compare actual work with information submitted online. Commercial projects will also face monitoring of water treatment facilities and equipment installed to control carbon emissions. Compliance is proposed to be reviewed every month at the state level. Environmental clearance for specified categories of projects in Jharkhand is handled through the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), while the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) appraises proposals and makes recommendations.
Scrutiny of Work Done Against Environmental Penalty
The monitoring will also cover remediation and environmental restoration work undertaken by projects that had earlier violated clearance requirements. Official SEAC records show that violation cases can involve remediation and natural and community resource augmentation plans, bank guarantees and penalties before environmental clearance is granted. They can also require verification before a bank guarantee is released. The fresh scrutiny comes after instances where private agencies were found claiming work carried out under other projects as their own compliance. To check such practices, separate weekly reports on the work carried out are proposed.
The proposed green audit would effectively add another layer of verification to the environmental clearance system by checking whether commitments made on paper are actually being carried out at project sites. Jharkhand’s environmental appraisal process already provides for conditions such as sewage treatment, energy conservation, carbon footprint studies and remediation measures in applicable projects. Regular reporting combined with physical inspection is intended to make it harder for project proponents to obtain compliance clearance on the basis of incorrect or unverifiable claims.
