Overview
- Issuing an order on November 4, a bench led by Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Dr Afroz Ahmad directed pollution regulators to ensure immediate installation of Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring Systems at defaulting Grossly Polluting Industries.
- Member secretaries of the Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar SPCBs and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee must submit compliance reports to the CPCB within two months from the order date.
- The CPCB must take remedial and punitive action against non-compliant units within one month thereafter and file a consolidated compliance report with the NGT within three months.
- The plea cited CPCB data listing 704 defaulting units in Uttar Pradesh, 812 in Haryana, 149 in Delhi and 21 in Bihar, with the petitioner estimating roughly 1,700 industries operating without the mandated systems.
- OCEMS track parameters such as pH, flow, COD and TSS in real time, and the NGT warned that failures to install or operate these systems would invite measures under the Water Act as it reviews compliance and may relist the matter.