The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has guidelines on and pollution laws to simplify bureaucratic processes, reduce delays as well as improve compliance and governance.
The streamlining of guidelines add to the benefits from last year’s revision that introduced a uniform procedural framework for consent to establish and operate.
A central feature of the latest guidelines is the introduction of indefinite consent to operate. Approvals will remain valid until cancelled, replacing the earlier system of periodic renewals for industries.
Under the guidelines, companies can submit a single application covering approvals under water, air and waste management laws. Streamlining of applications aims to save time and reduce duplication. State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) now also have greater powers to grant and cancel consent, particularly for high-risk industries classified in the red category. For red category industries, the processing time for applications has been reduced from 120 days to 90 days.
Registered environmental auditors have also been empowered to conduct site visits to verify compliance, which is in addition to the existing SPCB officers’ inspections.
For micro and small enterprises in notified industrial estates or areas, consent would be deemed granted once they submit a self-certified approval application. Notified areas have already been environmentally assessed.
Other changes introduced include eliminating repetitive fee collection and administrative processing, revised minimum-distance siting criteria and a uniform definition of capital investment.
