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Hello Jammu News at 5:05:00 PM 0

Bhubaneswar, Sep 17: In its bid to clean up the air, the Odisha government Monday launched a 'Star Rating' system here for industries, the first-of-its-kind initiative in the state, to ensure transparency in compliance to pollution standards.

The programme, launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, will rate industries from 1 to 5 based on their efforts to meet the standards set by Odisha's pollution control board.

A joint effort of State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago, the project is an example of the state's 3T framework - Teamwork, Transparency and Technology, the CM said.

"It will go a long way in strengthening the pollution board's regulatory efforts," he observed.

Describing the programme as yet another initiative, where his government has demonstrated commitment to transparency and accountability, Patnaik said "the system will encourage industries to adopt clean technologies".

"This 'Star Rating' programme will help public find out whether industries in their vicinity are fair in their environmental compliance. It will also recognise the efforts of industries that take responsibility to maintain clean environment," Patnaik said.

On the occasion, the chief minister also launched a website, where citizens can access information in this regard.

Development commissioner and chairman of SPCB, R Balakrishnan, said the pollution board has been collecting data through a Continuous Emission Monitoring System on industrial pollution.

"It has been an exciting journey working with researchers from the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) to distill data into star ratings for public disclosure," he said.

Economist Michael Greenstone, who is also the director of EPIC, said citizens will be able to identify the sources of pollution through this project.

"The Odisha Star Rating program is a pioneering initiative to empower people to ensure that industries comply with existing laws," he said.

State Industries Minister Anant Das, Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray and Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi were among others who attended the programme here in the morning. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 8:36:00 PM 0

JAMMU AUGUST 07: A joint Team of Officers from J&K SPCB Divisional Office Jammu (South) and Samba (North) today carried out an extensive anti-polythene drive in Narwal Fruit Mandi, Trikuta Nagar, Ware House and adjoining areas. During the raids around 62 Kg banned polythene material was seized by the team.
The offenders were compounded on the spot and strict instructions were issued to them to desist from the illegal storage and sale of banned polythene material. The drive was conducted under the supervision of Regional Director Jammu Shally Ranjan. 
Meanwhile, the SPCB Regional Director said that more such drives would be conducted to make the temple city of Jammu polythene free.  The Regional Director appealed to the traders, shopkeepers, hawkers etc. to avoid storage and sale of banned polythene materials. The Board also appealed to the people to discourage the use of polythene and plastic materials in day to day life.
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Hello Jammu News at 7:11:00 PM 1

Urges officials to be proactive, interactive
SRINAGAR, JULY 20:  Advisor to Governor K Vijay Kumar today stressed on the officials of the State Pollution Control Board to be more active, responsive and interactive while performing their duties of enactment of various laws of Environment protection.
He said this while   reviewing the functioning and the performance of State Pollution Control Board (SPCB). The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary Forests, Saurabh Bhagat, Chairman State Pollution Control Board, B Siddhartha Kumar, Secretary SPCB, BM Sharma, Regional Director SPCB and other senior officers of the Board.
On the occasion the meeting was informed that Board has switched over to on-line Consent Management and Monitoring System to ensure transparency and speedy disposal of consent cases for setting up new industrial units. Officials informed that the move has further eased the process for young entrepreneurs to set up new industrial units and that about 2300 consents have been issued since June last year.
Meeting was further informed that to keep track of harmful emissions emitted by various industrial units, the SPCB has installed Online Continuous Emission Monitoring System (OCEMS) in 53 highly polluting industries under 17 different categories all over the state.
Regarding monitoring of Water Pollution, meeting was informed that SPCB monitors water quality under National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWMP) at 74 monitoring stations by the CPCB covering stations on rivers. lakes, ponds and Ground Water Wells while the Board also monitors 21 STPs across the state including 13 in Kashmir and 8 in Jammu.
Officials further informed the advisor that on the directions of High Court, the Board monitors the vehicular pollution with the assistance of Traffic Police and has mobile labs    are in service for the purpose. They said the Board randomly cross checks 2023 vehicles upto March 2018 while the Board also monitors the Pollution Checking Centres and reports are conveyed to the Transport Commissioner for further action.
With regard to the implementation of ban on plastic, officials informed that SPCB seizes 314.74 quintals of polythene during the current fiscal and fetched Rs 36.78 lakhs as revenue from auction of the seized material. They said in an innovative disposal the Board, last year, handed over 396.9 quintals of seized polythene to SFRI for raising seedlings.
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Hello Jammu News at 8:07:00 PM 0

JAMMU, JULY 11: A team of State Pollution Control Board today conducted surprise inspection in various shopping malls across the city and seized banned polythene material being used by the traders.   
As per a spokesperson of the Board, J&K SPCB special Task Force headed by Regional Director SPCB Jammu, Er. J. N. Sharma confiscated the banned polythene packaging material and allied products having thickness less than 50 microns as per SRO-45 of 2017.
The PCB team raided various establishments   and fined   the defaulters as per the SRO issued by the government under the J&K State Non-Biodegradable Material (Management, Handling and Disposal) Act, 2007.
The Regional Director Jammu urged the traders, manufacturers, stockists and persons using such banned material to cooperate with the authorities in eradication of banned material to protect the fragile environment of state. The main establishment raided included Vishal Mega Mart at Railhead Complex Jammu.  The compound penalty for using the banned packaging material was imposed on the spot against the offenders.
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Hello Jammu News at 7:28:00 PM 0


SRINAGAR, JULY 03: Commissioner Secretary Forest, Environment and Ecology today convened a meeting to review the implementation status of various reforms under 'Ease of Doing Business’ introduced by the Department of Industries Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests; Chairman J&K State Pollution Control Board; Member Secretary, J&K SPCB; Special Secretary Technical; Environmental Engineer (Nodal Officer EoDB), J&K SPCB and Consultant from Earnest and Young appointed by the Industries & Commerce Department State of J&K and other Officers were present in the meeting.
At the outset, the Chairman J&K SPCB, briefed about these business reforms undertaken by the J&K SPCB and apprised that out of 47 Business Reform Action Points introduced by the DIPP Government of India since 2017 J&K SPCB have completed 44 Business Reform Action Points. As such J&K State has got a jump from 32 level to 22 level as per the evaluation done by Department of Industries Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India.
The chairman explained that EoDB reforms are aimed at bringing transparency in the process of consent management and reducing the time taken for obtaining the mandatory clearances from the J&K SPCB by way of making online consent management and monitoring system (OCMMS) fully functional and more efficient and efficacious.
The Member Secretary J&K SPCB gave a detailed information on the key initiatives taken by the Board and assured these reforms will give a fillip to the overall development of the State as these reforms are Industry friendly with adequate safeguards on environmental protection.  
The Consultant from the Industries apprised the Commissioner Secretary that few more reforms have been introduced recently few days back by the Government of India for the State Pollution Control Board on the issues of E-waste and Plastic Waste Management and the total point of reforms have been increased to 58 from 44 under Business Reforms Action Plan 2018.
The Commissioner Secretary Forest appreciated the work done by the J&K SPCB and issued directions to the Pollution Control Officers for introducing and   implementing these reforms and asked the SPCB to do exercise for implementation of more points as suggested by DIPP in a time bound manner and assured that wherever the need of Government is required all kind of help shall be provided for implementation of these reforms in letter and spirit. He also desired to make the J&K State on the same parameters for Ease of Doing Business which makes Maximum governance with Minimum Government as being done by the other states like Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana etc.
The Commissioner Secretary Forests apprised during the meeting that through the reforms, the complex procedure has been simplified, fixed timelines have been framed and exemption of industries from field inspection for Green Categories having satisfactory compliance history of past 02 years and consecutive two consents of the J&K SPCB have been introduced for the Ease of Business. White categories of industries have been exempted from seeking consent of the Board.
With regard to reforms to be undertaken by the Forest Department J&K the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest assured that the same shall be implemented on-line at the earliest for the Ease of Business in the Forest Department and common man shall be benefited by these reforms.

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Hello Jammu News at 7:31:00 PM 0

JAMMU, JUNE 18: Continuing with the endeavor of encouraging the people to plant trees during the rainy season, Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Rajiv Jasrotia today reviewed the arrangements for 70th Van Mahotsav celebrations slated to be observed next month.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Manoj Pant and other senior officers of Forests and its allied wings of Jammu province attended the meeting.
During the meeting, the Minister directed State Forest Corporation, State Pollution Control Board and Wildlife Department to pool in resources and manpower to make Van Mahotsav - a grand success. He directed SPCB to launch a plantation drive in industrial estates in collaboration with industrial associations.
He also directed for including grassroots democratic institutions for greater participation, besides pasing instructions for formulation of transport and communication plan for effective implementation of plantation drive.
The Minister exhorted the Forest Department to launch Van Mahotsav as a brand so that common people identify themselves with the yearly event and stressed for GPS bearing of the plantation sites for better monitoring and inspection.
He directed for involving media, both print and electronic, in spreading awareness on Van Mahotsav and the monsoon plantation drive. He stressed on the need for content creation, advertisements, documentaries and messages for social media. “We need to change our mindset and go for collective action for planting more trees,” he added.
Earlier, the Minister was informed that all Divisional Forest Officers shall collect saplings from State Forest Research Institute after sending their requisitions through Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.
While addressing the meeting, the Minister further said that forests are important not only for sustaining life on this planet but they also play an important role in increasing agricultural production. He also said that it is our collective responsibility to plant trees during monsoon and the Forest Department will facilitate this cause by providing saplings to the people.
He informed that the slogan of this year’s Van Mahotsav is ‘Greening of Shivaliks, Sunrise to Sunset’. It was decided in the meeting that around 12 lakh saplings would be planted during the Van Mahotsav.
The Minister directed the concerned officers to plant trees in and around the government institutions, streets and towns to negate the effect of carbon emission and further the purpose of greenery.
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Hello Jammu News at 7:09:00 PM 0

Inaugurates 2-day Athletic championship
JAMMU, JANUARY 16-Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh inaugurated two-day J&K State Athletic Championship at Jammu University, here this afternoon.
The Championship, organized by School Sports Promotion Foundation (SSPF) a Non-Government Organisation in collaboration with Ministry for Sports and Youth Affairs and Ministry of Human Resource Development GOI, saw participation  of  320 students from  27 schools of the state.
Interacting with the players, the Minister highlighted the need of extra-curricular activities for overall personality development of the students. He said sports should be made an integral part of course curriculum so that the students not only excel academically but also remain physically and mentally fit.
Choudhary Lal Singh said that Government has taken several steps for strengthening and upgrading sports infrastructure in the State. He said sports complexes would be constructed at block level and every Panchayat would have a sports field.
Earlier, the Minister formally declared the 2-day Athletic championship open by unfurling the SSPF  flag.
Assistant Director SSPF Ravi Shankar Pandit gave a resume of the Athletic Championship and said that the winning teams of the championship would be sent to Maharashtra for competitions .
Later, the Minister chaired a meeting with State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) officials to review the status of implementation of ban on polythene in the state. He directed the officers to take strict action against polythene smuggling adding that Government has formulated an action plan to take polythene smugglers to task.
Chairman SPCB B Sidhartha, Regional Director SPCB Ch Showkat Ali besides other senior officers of SPCB attended the meeting.
The Minister said that strict guidelines have been issued to the officers at Lakhanpora, Lower Munda toll posts for keeping an eye on the smuggling of polythene across the State. He said that similar instructions have been issued to the industrial units for restricting manufacturing of polythene bags. He said that units not complying with the State Pollution Control Board guidelines would be dealt sternly as per the law.

Choudhary Lal Singh further said that instructions have already been passed to the concerned officers to launch a massive anti-polythene smuggling campaign across the State.
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Hello Jammu News at 6:46:00 PM 0


More than 25,000 saplings planted along roadside on NH
KATHUA, JANUARY 06: Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh today inaugurated mega plantation drive in which more than 25,000 saplings were planted on 5 km long stretch of National Highway at Barnoti here.
The mega plantation drive was a joint initiative of State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) and Social Forestry Department in which trees including Peepal, Bourd, Guava, Saru, Neem, Safaida, Bruganvillea, Kitamb and other medicinal plants were planted on the roadside strips and open spaces.
SFRI also provided 97,000 different plants to Social Forestry Department for plantation in 48 left out road strips in Kathua town near Barnoti.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Ravi Kesar, Deputy Commissioner Rohit Khajuria, Chief Wildlife Warden Manoj Panth, Chairman State Pollution Control Board B Sidhartha, Director Social Forestry Ashwani Kumar Gupta, Director SFC Suresh Gupta, Director FPF Asif Mehmood Sagar, Chief Conservator of Forests Farooq Gillini, Director SFRI B M Sharma, Director Soil Water and Conservation Javed Iqbal Punju, Director Environment and Remote Sensing O P Sharma, Regional Director Social Forestry Roop Avtar Kour, Regional Director Wild Life Dr V.S Sinthil Kumar besides other senior officers of Forest and its allied wings participated in the Mega Plantation Drive at Barnoti.
While addressing the gathering, Choudhary Lal Singh said the initiative has been taken to cover every open space with greenery. SFRI and Social Forestry Wings have been directed to develop nurseries with different plants to beautify every area with green face, he added.
He appealed the people to hold plantation drives during the monsoon season and advised them to plant trees in and around their localities as they adapt readily to local climate, integrate into the eco-system and prove helpful in supporting birds, insect and animals.
The Minister directed the officers of SFRI and Social Forestry to deploy dedicated staff in their jurisdictions for ensuring timely watering of plants. He also asked the State Pollution Control Board not to allow industrialists to release pollution through their industries in Samba and Kathua. He asked the industrialists to follow the norms of the SPCB for running their units and providing pollution free environ to the people.
He stressed on the role of trees in maintaining balance in nature and emphasized that the people should come forward and plant trees for protecting green wealth for survival of mankind.
The Minister informed that during last monsoon, the Forest department had planted about two crore plants across the state in forests and road strips. The main focus of the department would be on the plantation of fruit, ornamental and medicinal plants as these trees remain green throughout the year adding to the beauty of the State, he stressed.
Choudhary Lal Singh said that the Forest Department has been tasked with a very important role to conserve the natural resources which directly impact the life of human beings and other living creatures. He said dedicated efforts are required to meet this noble cause.

Later, on the way, Choudhary Lal Singh found some trolleys and tractors plying without following the guidelines of SPCB. He directed SPCB to cancel the licenses of the drivers who are found plying the vehicles without plastic sheet (Tripal) and creating problems for the commuters.
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Hello Jammu News at 7:58:00 PM 0


SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 11: Jammu and Kashmir State Pollution Control Board today carried out major Anti-Polythene Drive across Kashmir province.
A team of SPCB officials headed by Regional Director Kashmir Dr. Syed Nadeem Hussain and assisted by officials of SMC and Forest Protection Force raided many shopkeepers in Srinagar selling their merchandise in illegal polythene bags which have been banned in the State of J&K. These raids were conducted in Dalgate, Maharaja Bazar, Lal Chowk, Kokar Bazaar and Batamaloo areas of the city in which a large quantity of banned and illegal polythene was seized.
It is pertinent to note that the Governmwnt of J&K vide SRO 45 dated February 3, 2017, has banned manufacture, stocking, distribution, sale and use of polythene carry bags, plastic sheets or like, cover made of plastic sheet, plastic packaging and multi-layered packing less than 50 microns in thickness within the territorial limits of Jammu of Kashmir.
Similar anti-polythene drives were also conducted in all the districts of Kashmir viz Pulwama, Baramulla, Budgam, Baramulla, Anantnag, Kulgam and Kupwara in which large quantity of illegal polythene was seized.
Regional Director SPCB Kashmir informed that similar raids will be conducted in future to curb use of polythene as part of the campaign initiated by the SPCB which is spearheaded by Minister for Forests and Environment Ch. Lal Singh. He further informed that as per the directions of the Minister, SPCB is going to launch an aggressive anti-polythene awareness and advertisement campaign in the coming weeks to sensitise the masses regarding harmful effects of polythene use.

He also appealed the public to refrain from using polythene in day to day life and go for eco-friendly alternatives of polythene.  
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Hello Jammu News at 8:12:00 PM 0

JAMMU, OCTOBER 04: A team of State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) officials today conducted surprise inspection in different markets of Jammu city and seized banned polythene material from shops and other commercial establishments.
The team led by Regional Director, Shaukat Choudhary asked shopkeepers to desist from using banned polythene and only use bags with thickness of 50 microns, properly stamped and labeled by the manufacturers with registration numbers allotted to them by the Board.
The team also charged fine from the violators as per the norms.
Appealing to the public to abstain from using harmful   material, Shaukat Choudhary said that it is causing irreversible damage to the environment.
He further informed that polythene above 50 microns can be recycled and may be used again in one form or the other.
Regional Director asked the officers to create awareness among people for not using banned polythene material. The drive would continue in coming days, he added.

Pertinently, recently a joint team of SPCB from divisional offices of Jammu and Samba conducted extensive raids in Jammu City and seized about 1000 kg of banned polythene carry bags.
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