Industries reneging on ETP

A mobile court drive against environment offending industries initiated by the Department of Environment (DoE) in Tongi and Konabari has led to an eye-opening revelation. Even the industries with effluent treatment plants (ETPs) keep polluting adjoining water bodies. Just add to this the numerously mushrooming manufacturing units, and you have a dreadful picture of the magnitude of river pollution through untreated chemical wastes.
The drive has led to an identification of basically three types of industrial offenders of environment. First, a certain number of industries have the treatment plants alright but which are inoperative being kept as show pieces to ward off inspection; and second is the kind that have functional ETPs but which are operated only before a drive gets underway and presumably after news about it had leaked to them.
Last but not least, is a large body of recalcitrant manufacturing units that have been running without the approval of BSTI and DoE which is supposed to be mandatory. Of course, they were required to have a licence from the industries ministry to operate in the first place. The question whether they are registered or not is pertinent. If they are not, how can they be brought under any regulatory and disciplinary mechanism, as far as the proliferation of spurious and substandard products jeopardising public health goes, in addition to the concern over chemical pollution of the environment. The biggest polluter, however, is the Hazaribagh tannery whose relocation remains a thorny issue to date.
So the issue is much wider than what is perceived in terms of whether an industry has an effluent plant or not. On the question of environmental pollution itself the DoE and BSTI should adopt more of a pre-emptive approach making sure that the basic laws and rules have been adhered to before the industries commenced their operations rather than waking up to a pattern of infringement raising a hue and cry among the media and the environmental activists. In between there should have been continuing supervision, punitive measures and incentives given to industries adhering to environmental standards.