No-Objection Certificate from Pollution Control Board

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that comes under The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate in India works for checking the air, water, and noise pollution by ensuring the quality is maintained. It also issues guidelines for the purpose. Additionally, every state has its own Pollution Control Boards.

Any and every industry, operation or process which may result in the discharge of sewerage into the environment and if is likely to emit any substance into the environment that may cause any form of pollution mandatorily has to obtain a consent from the State Pollution Consent Board. This consent is as per the Water (Pollution & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Pollution & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

In a similar manner, the industries or processes which generates, stores, dispose of, transports, or handles any hazardous waste as per the Hazardous waste (Handing and Management) Rulesmust obtain authorization from the State Pollution Control Board.

According to Biomedical Waste (M & H) Rules, any medical institutions generating biomedical waste should also obtain appropriate Authorization.

Such consents are collectively known as No-Objection Certificate (NOC)

What are the types of consents or NOC?

Mainly three types of consent are applied:

Consent to Establish
Consent to Operate
Renewal of Consent to operate

What are the Permissions/ Clearances required?

Every industry/ operation/ process should obtain several Environment and Pollution Related clearances and permissions according to the nature of the unit and the products manufactured.

1. A No Objection Certificate (NOC) must be obtained from the State Pollution Control Board before the commencement of any activity. For some industries which fall in the categories of highly polluting industries, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study is carried out and submitted to the State Pollution Control Board for approval.

2. For the Industries that require a system of Water and Affecting Effluent Disposal, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the State Pollution Control Board should be obtained.

3. For the industrial units that function outside the designated Industrial Area, appropriate permissions have to be taken from the Municipal Corporation, Municipality or the Panchayat. When required, a permission to convert agricultural land into the industrial area has to be taken from the appropriate authority.

4. An appropriate registration and licensing of the Boiler by the Chief Inspector of Boiler is required as a safety clearance before commencing the operations.

4. Special clearances of the Development Commissioner of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) is required for registering as a 100% Export Oriented Unit (EOU) which enjoy several additional concessions.

What are the categories of Industries?

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, by a notification in 1989 introduced the concept of stricter guidelines for certain industries to protect ecology.

The concept of such categorization of industries as “Red”, “Orange”, “Green” and “White” is now accepted and extends to the whole country has is a part of the Water and Air Acts.

The categorization extends to not only the location of industries but also for the Consent Management, granting NOC and formulation of guidelines. The concept of categorization of industries continues to evolve.

What is the procedure to obtain the Consent to establish and Consent to Operate?

The procedure is completely online and there is no need to visit the offices of the authority.
AN application form has to be filled up and uploaded on the official site.
The required documents can be uploaded on the official site along with the prescribed fee.
To bring some ease to the process and for the speedy disposal of applications, the powers have been delegated to the various members and committees.
The authorized officer assigns the application to a Field officer who reviews the application. Along with visiting the industry. A Visit Report is prepared and submitted to the Sub Regional Officer.
Upon further scrutiny of the documents and other aspects, the application may be approved or rejected.

What are the documents required for obtaining NOC from the Pollution Control Board?

The lists of documents that are required to be annexed and uploaded with the application form vary as per each state and nature of the activity, process, and operation.

Some basic documents required are listed as follows-

A location plan or site plan of the industry.
A Proprietorship Certificate, Partnership Deed, Memorandum or Article of Association as applicable to the industry, operation or process.
Valid documents of the land like Jamabandi, Registration deed or Lease Deed indicating specific details of the property.
Brief Project Report with a flow chart indicating the Manufacturing Process.
Compliance report of any previous Consent to Operate granted to the entity.
Undertaking that the proposed site is located in the designated Industrial area as notified and the plan of the establishment is permissible. It should also indicate the detailed revenue entries.
Other documents as per the State in which it situates, the location, activity etc
Any industry specific documents or certificates.
For a renewal application, a Request Letter must be submitted giving the reason for non-completion of the project in the time as stipulated earlier along with the current status.