Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 10: State Government is formulating comprehensive policy to check adverse impact of cement factories on the environment in both regions of the State. The policy will be based on the outcome of fields visits recently conducted by the experts.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that 7-member Committee headed by Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Shantmanu, which was constituted for in-depth and exclusive study of all the cement factories established in the State to assess the environmental pollution caused by these factories, is in the final stage of making detailed recommendations to the Committee on Environment of the State Legislature.
In order to minutely observe the impact of cement plants on the environment, this Committee as per its mandate had engaged two experts—Heads of Department of Environment, Jammu University and Kashmir University, who conducted field visits in both the regions of the State. In Jammu region, the experts visited cement factories in Samba and Kathua districts while as in Kashmir valley several plants in Khrew area were checked.
“Though pollution control devises have been installed in the cement plants, still there is adverse impact on the environment in the vicinity of majority of the factories”, sources said, adding “during field visits it also came to fore that Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study in respect of several cement plants has not been conducted even several years after their establishment”.
“Several cement factories were also found not adhering to the 3-tier tree plantation around the boundaries of the units”, sources further informed, adding “the dust particles in the areas surrounding the cement factories were found beyond the permissible limit”.
In response to a question, sources said, “all the observations of the experts made following the field visits are being compiled and would be placed before the Committee headed by Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Shantmanu soon after his return from USA and Canada on December 20, 2012”.
“The Committee would place its comprehensive report before the Committee on Environment of State Legislature, which will record its comments before tabling the same on the floor of State Legislature most likely during the Budget Session”, they said.
Responding to another question, sources said that Committee has decided to lay thrust on fixing a criteria vis-à-vis selection of sites for setting up of cement plants and setting up of multi-department monitoring cell to have holistic view of all the aspects while having once in a month visit of the cement plants.
“Unless comprehensive policy is framed, the adverse impact of the cement factories on the environment and wildlife cannot be checked”, they said, adding “though cement plants are mandatory for infrastructure development, the same cannot be allowed at the cost of environment”.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel