GURGAON: Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), in the last one year, has collected a fine of Rs. 56 lakh from stone crusherssituated in city's fringe areas in the last one year.
The penalty was collected from 28 stone crushers for violating air pollution norms of HSPCB. Over 50 stone crushers are located near Faridabad, Daruhera and at a few construction sites in new sectors of the city.
"As stone crushers are major emitters of suspended particulate matter, we took strict action against those who found to be flouting the pollution norms. We not only penalized them, but gave them 21 days notice to fulfill the norms. We re-inspected the units to make sure that norms are now being followed," said an official of HSPCB.
According to HSPCB's environmental standards for emissions of suspended particulate matter, it is mandatory to implement five important pollution control measures including installation of dust containment cum suppression system for the equipment, construction of wind breaking walls around the unit, construction of the metalled roads within the unit's premises, installing sprinklers for regular cleaning and wetting of the ground within the unit's premises and planting green belt along the periphery of the unit.
Experts however called the initiatives taken by the board insufficient. "The board might have collected a huge penalty this year. However, the norms are still not followed. Visit Dwarka Expressway, Gurgaon-Faridabad Road or Sohna Road, dust is so evident. Stone crushers located in Faridabad and Dharuhera are major cause of concern. I don't think steps taken by the board are sufficient," said JitenderBhadana, a Faridabad-based environmentalist.
Some experts feel that the lack of air pollution monitoring machines around stone crushers makes it difficult to keep a check on them. "Officials of HSPCB can only visit the crushers once or twice a month. As per the norms, suspended particulate matter (SPM) measured between 3 to 10 metres from any process equipment of a stone crushing unit shall not exceed 600 micrograms per cubic meter. HSPCB however doesn't have any mechanism to measure emission of SPM from stone crushers as the city has only one air quality monitoring machine situated quite far from the stone crushers. Many stone crushing units take advantage of such deficiencies and get away with mere penalties," said a retired scientist from HSPCB, requesting anonymity.
