simplification of policy for NOC

Dec. 30 - The Haryana State Pollution Control Board toay announced a policy for the simplification of procedure for granting consent for establish (NOC)/consent to operate projects/industry.

While disclosing this here today, the Chief Minister, Mr.Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that policy provides deem clearance i.e. grant of NOC to the projects covered under environment impact assessment notification dated September 14, 2006 once the environment clearance was granted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests or by the State Authority by depositing performance guarantee and an undertaking for adherence to the standards laid down by the Board.

He said that this would greatly benefit the industry in getting time bound/deemed clearance from the Pollution Control Board and also consent to operate for a longer period which will save their valuable time by removing hassles of paper processing and unnecessary to the office of the Board.

He said that this policy will also reduce the paper work at the head quarters as well as in the field offices of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board by enhancing the tenure of consent for a period of 2 to 10 years and delegationof powers at the district level for projects having capital investment upto Rs.50 crore. This will also help in ensuring regular monitoring of polluting industries by making frequent inspections and more vigil on the defaulting units in order to clean rivers/canals/drains and maintaining wholesomeness of water and air in the State, he added.
Giving details of the policy, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mrs.Kiran Choudhry said that under the policy, all projects/industrial units covered under environment impact assessment notification, 2006 would be given deemed consent to establish (NOC) within 10 days once the environment clearance was granted under EIA notification, provided the project proponent submitted a bank guarantee of 0.5 per cent of the project cost alongwith an undertaking by the applicant indicating his awareness of the prescribed standards and his commitment to comply with the same.

She said that the performance bond would be refunded/retired at one-fifth of the value after every year of successful adherence to prescribed standards subsequent to the date of coming into production/operation of the project. The NOC/consent to establish would be provided within 10 days of the submission of the above documents alongwith the letter granting environmental clearance by the competent authority under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification for category A projects and the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for projects in category B at the headquarters level after approval of the Chairman of the Board, she added.

Mrs.Kiran Choudhry said that the Board had identified 18 categories of polluting industries which are not covered by EIA notification and their consent to establish/consent to operate would be granted at the district level by the district level clerance committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner for all project upto investment cost of Rs.50 crore. The powers of grant of consent to operate had been delegated to a district level committee headed by Deputy Commissioner or the ADC to be specifically authorised by the Deputy Commissioner and consisting of the District Town Planner, the General Manager, District Industries Centre (GM, DIC), the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Executive Engineer of the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Executive Engineer of the Power Distribution Utility, Deputy GM, HSIIDC, XEN Drainage, EO, HUDA and the Regional Officer as the Member Secretary for projects upto a capital investment of Rs.50 crore only.

She said that all the cases of consent to operate would be decided within 15 days in a time bound manner. Earlier these powers were delegated to the District Level Committee upto the project cost of Rs.five crore. The period of grant of consent had also been increased from two years to three years in case of project covered under EIA notification and 2 to 10 years in case of projects not covered under EIA notification. The consent to operate for case-II category would be granted for a minimum period of five years and maximum period of ten years against the existing procedure of granting yearly consent.

She said that the Board was considering an IT policy which would ensure e-filing of NOC/consent applications which will greatly benefit the industry and also help them in saving their valuable time and at the same time drastically reduce paper work of the Board.