Hike in consent fee for new industries

R L Lakhote,desk officer,Environment Department,said,“There was a dire need to come up with measures to monitor and control pollution. It is important to have efficient staff in sufficient numbers and modern machinery to carry out periodic inspections to check industrial pollution. There is also a need of funds to meet all these expenses; the little consent fee charged by the MPCB is insufficient. It has been decided to increase the consent fee.”

The fee charged on the mining industry has also been revised. Earlier,it was based on the investment done by the operator in land,building,plant and machinery. “It has been observed that the mining industry gives rise to lot of pollution. Now,in addition to the consent fee paid to the MPCB,the mining projects will have to pay 0.4 per cent per tonne of mined material per year,” said Lakhote.