KOCHI: The Eloor-Edayar and Ambalamugal industrial belts are the “critically polluted industrial areas of Greater Cochin area” where a moratorium on new projects will be in force, the Union Ministry for Environment and Forest has said in a communication. The “temporary moratorium on consideration of projects for environment clearance located on critically polluted areas based on the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI),” was slapped by the Ministry earlier this year. The moratorium will be in effect till August. The Ministry released the list of specific pollution-hit clusters “as various State governments had expressed difficulties in implementing the order due to inadequate details about the boundaries of critically polluted clusters identified,” the communication said. The index prepared by the Central Pollution Control Board had ranked the Greater Cochin area at 24 among the 81 clusters in the country it assessed.
Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister for Environment and Forest, had also stated in Kochi earlier that the moratorium would be lifted only after pollution mitigation measures were introduced in the areas. The CEPI index recorded “various health dimensions of environment including air, water and land.” The index was intended to act as an early warning tool and to help in categorising the industrial clusters in terms of the priority of planning needs for interventions, according to the Ministry communication. The Greater Cochin area got an aggregate CEPI score of 75.08 out of 100. It was also included in the list of “existing critically polluted areas” by the board. As per the CEPI ranking, the areas that scored 70 and above were classified as critically polluted ones. While the water quality of the Cochin area obtained a CEPI score of 64, the air quality got a score of 57 and the land component 54.
Ankleshwar in Gujarat topped the pollution list with a CEPI score of 88.5 followed by Vapi (88.09), Ghaziabad (87.37) and Chandrapur (83.88). The Burnihat and Digboi industrial clusters of Assam were the cleanest clusters with scores of 46.26 and 44.55 respectively. The blanket order had created widespread confusion in the industrial and political circles of the State. There were also apprehensions that a large number of upcoming commercial ventures in the area would be affected by the order.
Source: The Hindu, Dated: 20.03.2010
Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister for Environment and Forest, had also stated in Kochi earlier that the moratorium would be lifted only after pollution mitigation measures were introduced in the areas. The CEPI index recorded “various health dimensions of environment including air, water and land.” The index was intended to act as an early warning tool and to help in categorising the industrial clusters in terms of the priority of planning needs for interventions, according to the Ministry communication. The Greater Cochin area got an aggregate CEPI score of 75.08 out of 100. It was also included in the list of “existing critically polluted areas” by the board. As per the CEPI ranking, the areas that scored 70 and above were classified as critically polluted ones. While the water quality of the Cochin area obtained a CEPI score of 64, the air quality got a score of 57 and the land component 54.
Ankleshwar in Gujarat topped the pollution list with a CEPI score of 88.5 followed by Vapi (88.09), Ghaziabad (87.37) and Chandrapur (83.88). The Burnihat and Digboi industrial clusters of Assam were the cleanest clusters with scores of 46.26 and 44.55 respectively. The blanket order had created widespread confusion in the industrial and political circles of the State. There were also apprehensions that a large number of upcoming commercial ventures in the area would be affected by the order.
Source: The Hindu, Dated: 20.03.2010
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