Gandhinagar, Aug 9 (KNN) The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) via written communication to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has sought state government's intervention over the National Green Tribunal's  (NGT's) order to meet the emission norms.

The NGT, in its order, directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to shut down polluting industries in “critically polluted” and “severely polluted” areas across the country within three months.

In a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, GCCI said Gujarat is the first state to take up the initiative to control pollution by establishing Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) and TSDF Sites for industrial waste by investing huge amounts.

“We appreciate the initiatives taken by the government and NGT towards environmental conservation. However, the recent judgement of NGT is causing more harm to the genuine and compliant industrial units instead of curbing only the non-compliant polluting industrial units”, it added.

It said that the current judgment by NGT overrides the CEPI guidelines issued in the matter and are therefore unreasonable. Further, the sampling done by GPCB and CPCB show quite different results. In this case, the benefit of doubt should be given to the industries for re-sampling.

GPCB has even submitted a written request to CPCB for the same, but it has not been considered.

Huge investments have been made in the creation of new Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETP), this has enabled a reduction in emission by about 90 per cent in a short period of time. Improving standards from this stage require technology intervention and reasonable time, said the GCII letter.

We, therefore, request that stage-wise benchmarks from this stage should be provided to industries and reasonable time should be provided, said GCCI.

It further added “It is the dream of Prime Minister to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by the year 2024. This dream could only be achieved with the support of the MSMEs. It is therefore critical to ensure that the genuine MSMEs get all possible support and do not have to face bottlenecks in their growth journey.”

In its letter, GCCI requested National Green Tribunal (NGT), Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that harsh actions such as closure, penalties and prosecution cases should be dropped for a period of 2 years from now so that the industries get reasonable time to fully meet the CPCB prescribed norms, said GCCI.