Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik has launched a star rating programme for industries to help people find out whether the nearby industries are pollution compliant or not. The first of its kind transparency initiative in the state will categorise industries between 1-star to 5-star, with 5-star being most compliant. The Chief Minister has also launched a new website (www.ospcb.info) where the information can be accessed.
The transparent pollution regulation programme will continuously monitors emission data in real time. Odisha State Pollution Control Board (SPCB Odisha) collaborated with Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India) to distill the data into ratings.
The Star Rating Program is based on the particulate matter (PM) emissions of large manufacturers of steel, cement, aluminium and major power plants. The program will be implemented with the help of EPIC India researchers and TCD in a phased manner.
The program will cover 20 industrial plants initially and will eventually cover all the 136 plants with continuously monitored data. OSPCB is also conducting inspection and recalibration drives to check the quality of data and would be updating the ratings every month.
Forest and Environment minister Bijayshree Routray, Industries Minister Anant Das, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Development Commissioner-cum-Chairman R Balakrishnan, ACS forest an Environment Suresh Mahapatra, Energy secretary, Hemant Sharma, Industry secretary Sanjeev Chopra, senior officials of OPSCB, delegates from University of Chicago (EPIC India) and representatives from 20 industries were present in the launch event.
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