Out of a total number of 4,40,080 industries operating across the country, 28,166 have been found non-complying with environmental standards, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) said on Monday.

While responding to a question in Lok Sabha, the ministry in a written reply said, "As per the information received from State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) including Maharashtra, there are total 4,89,864 industries in the country. Out of which, 4,40,989 units are operational and 48,875 industries are self-closed. Number of complying and non-complying units are 4,12,823 and 28,166, respectively."

As per the statistics, from 2019 to 2022, a total of 20 pharmaceutical companies from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Assam have been imposed Environmental Compensation (EC) of over 10 crore.

"CPCB has initiated penal action in the form of imposing EC against those violating norms for setting up and maintaining pollution control systems in industries or facilities. CPCB has evolved a methodology for levying such EC against the industries /facilities not-complying with CPCB’s directions," ministry added.

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According to the ministry, show cause notices to 18,941 units and closure directions to 2,616 units were issued for non compliance and at the same time, legal cases have been filed against 158 units and action is being taken against 6,451 units is underway.

Among the states where non-compliance is maximum, Punjab has topped the list with 6,293 units followed by Gujarat with 4,605 units and Rajasthan with 3,796 units were found violating norms and maximum number of units have been given closure directions in Maharashtra where 668 units were shut down due to guidelines violation.

For prevention and control of pollution, CPCB, SPCBs/ PCCs have issued various directions under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, etc.

The CPCB is carrying out inspection of these industries based on computer generated alerts from Online Continuous Effluent/ Emission Monitoring System (OCEMS) since 2016-17.

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(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)