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CAG faults Coal India over green concerns
Why in news?
- The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on the environmental impact due to mining activities and mitigation measures at Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries, has found several discrepancies.
More in news
- CAG Report Mentioned that:
(1) Time Gap for formulation of Environment Policy: Centre had formulated the national environmental policy in Sep 2006, but the CIL formulated a comprehensive policy only in March 2012, followed by a revised one in Dec 2018.
(2) Stipulation by Environment Ministry: a well laid down policy, duly approved by the Board of Directors of the subsidiaries, needed to be in place.
(3) Six of the seven coal producing subsidiaries of CIL did not comply.
(4) Guidelines containing the responsibility and delegation at different levels were formulated by CIL, the same were not dovetailed in their operating manual by the subsidiaries.
(5) Air pollution and control measures:
(a) In 12 of the sampled 30 operating mines & washeries, against 96 air quality monitoring stations, only 58 (60%) were established.
(b) In all, 12 mines of four subsidiaries had not installed the ambient air quality monitoring systems linked to the State Pollution Control Boards’ servers.
(c) Norms for monitoring of particulate matter came into effect from Nov 2009, in Eastern Coalfields Limited, it started from May 2015.
(d) PM 10 & PM 2.5 levels exceeded the prescribed norm at several locations.
Sources
The Hindu