Initiatives taken and Standard Procedures defined

by

Gujarat Pollution Control Board

C.L.Meena (IAS Retd.)

President, Gujarat Civil Services

Tribunal

Key Features

1. Knowledge of Laws , Acts, rules & Policies pertaining to pollution control

2. Training & Development

3. Implementation

4. Monitoring

Objective of Manuals

• To ensure proper and systematic monitoring and supervision of Industries, Health care Units, common effluent treatment plants, Bio-medical Treatment facilities, TSDF and STP sites.

• It is necessary that the officials engaged in monitoring have written guidelines along with certain thumb rules to help them in handling different situations. It was, therefore decided to bring out manual covering various aspects related to legal, technical, scientific, administration and account matters.

The GPCB manual is thus being brought out in four parts, namely :-

Part - I Legal Manual - covering legal aspects.

Part - II Technical Manual - covering technical matters, especially on how to carry out monitoring of units as well as processing of files.

Part - III Scientific Manual - covering scientific aspects including management

of GPCB laboratories across the State and

Part- IV Administration and Accounts Manual - dealing with administrative and account matters.

Legal Manual published on 31st March 2008 with 691 pages divided into 7 chapters and 30 sub chapters.

Part - I Legal Manual

• The Legal manual opens up with a discussion on Stockholm Convention and dwells on concepts of International Environment Management discussed during Rio Summit in 1992 and Johannesburg Summit in 2002.

• It also deals with the Montreal Protocol for protection of ozone layer and Kyoto Protocol for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

• Later on, the National Environment Policy, brought out in 2006, is also discussed with the objectives, important principles and strategies and actions proposed in the policy.

• The document also talks about the various constitutional provisions which are applicable in environment protection.

• Few of the provisions of CrPC and IPC are also discussed in brief.

Part - I Legal Manual

• The three major Environmental Acts and the Water Cess Act have also been included in the manual along with commentaries on them.

• The various rules and notifications made under these acts have also been discussed in detail.

• The manual has covered all the environment legislations including those related with the formation of various authorities including the tribunals. Thus all aspects of environment viz. Land ,Air, Water and Spectrum have been covered.

• The laws covered include the older ones like 'General Clauses Act of 1897 to the most recent ones like ' The Right to Information Act'.

Technical Manual published on 31st March 2008 with 154 pages divided into 18 chapters.

Part - II Technical Manual

• The Technical Manual deals in detail with the system of working, especially in regard to grant of various consents and permissions under the various environmental laws.

• The roles and responsibilities of various officials of the board have been clearly spelt out. The work flow system of the board has been explain through charts.

• The guiding principles in various situations, especially during processing of files, have been laid down without any ambiguity.

• This, I believe, would go a long way in making GPCB a transparent organization.

Scientific Manual published on 31st March 2008 with 872 pages divided into 9 chapters and 53 sub chapters.

Part - III Scientific Manual

• The scientific manual deals with the general procedures to be followed in scientific analysis.

• This includes water environment monitoring using physico-chemical, microbiological and biological parameters.

• The manual also touches upon the infrastructure and the categories of the scientific instruments to be provided in the labs.

• A procedure of sampling and preservation of samples has also been provided for. The AQA (analytical quality assurance) and AXC (analytical quality control) has also been emphasized upon.

• The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed in analysis would help the officials of the board in achieving the results with greater accuracy and precision.

• This, in turn, would help in making GPCB labs comparable with the labs having the best practices throughout the country.

Accounts Manual published on 31st March 2008 with 138 pages.

Part- IV Administration and Accounts Manual

• Account Manual covers the procedures related to accounts and administrative guidelines.

• The Board is following the government instructions in financial matter and the Accounts Manual only mentions about the guidelines for maintenance of accounts.

E-Governance

eXtended Green Node - XGN

Developed and Implemented in Technical Support from the National

Informatics Centre, Gandhinagar

eXtended Green Node - XGN

• XGN - India’s first G2B portal developed to provide a one-stop destination for environmental compliances

• Aims at transforming and developing a conducive environment

• Conceptualised as 24x7 convenient and efficient single window facility by making all environment regulatory services available on a single portal through unique ID

• XGN-G2B Portal serving as a GATEWAY for all round facilities including making applications and compliances of regulatory requirements

• Successful instrument leading to rapid continual improvement of environmental performances, especially SMEs.

• Basic Tool for performance evaluation of Policies

Stakeholders

XGN

27 Regional Offices

14 Units at Head Office

4 Vigilance Offices

9 Labs

23,000 + Industries

Account, Legal &

Water Cess Branch

100+ Auditors100+

Consultant

9 TSDF & 27 Captive

Landfill

32,000 + Health

Care Units

33CETPs

18CBWTFs

170 Urban Local

Bodies

Several Hundred Citizens

CBWTFs : Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment FacilitiesCETPs : Common Effluent Treatment Plants

Application-Online

Online payments

Written remarks

e-SMS e-Talk

XGN

CTE CTO BMW

Authorization Inspection

Report Water Cess

returns Complaints

e-Movement, online processing of applications, Uniformity in process, Reduction

in time limit, Sound decision making, reduction in rejection ratio of applications

16

Environment Management through e-Governance

Some of the Modules Implemented

INDUSTRY Profile

Online CTE-CTO Applications

Applications Scrutiny System

e-Movement of Files &

Monitoring of CTE & CCA

Inspection Module

Laboratory Module

Monitoring of Projects

Hazardous Waste

Monitoring

Billing-Payments

System

LEGAL Actions Monitoring

Co-processing Module

Bio Medical Waste Module

Environment Audit System

Water Cess Online System

Complaint/Grievances Redressal

system

Municipal Solid Waste module

Violations Monitoring

Module

Challenges

No such successful model available in the regulatory domain

Required re-engineering of many business processes

Inherent internal resistance to bring transparency

Changing mindset of the Stakeholders

Non-availability of infrastructure - web connectivity, software/hardware

Pending work surfaced out

Transparency of the system killed monopolistic practices

Staff was not computer savvy – necessitated huge capacity building

No in-house IT specialist staff

Average age of the staff in the organization was 50+

Overcoming of Challenges

Provided computer literacy at the cost of the organization followed by an exam by the third party

Amendment of the recruitment rules of all cadres

Linked future promotions with the computer literacy

Linking promotions with grading of the ACRs / performance

Hiring of NIC - proven ability and credibility : they didn’t charge except for hired manpower cost

Business process reengineering : from submission of application to documentation to processing and communication

Decision to completely stop accepting the physical applications

Scrutiny to start before receipt of fees

Overcoming of Challenges

Procurement of adequate hardware and software – PC to all

Industries would enter their data - responsible for its correctness

PDFs shall be allowed to be uploaded and would be stored in server

Addition of various useful features – reduced the labour of the staff

Opening of “Help Desk” in all offices to support small businesses to use it

E-Outward and system generated provisional orders

Ranking of the offices and officers - resulted into healthy competition

Continuous motivation to staff and officers

Informal meetings, debates and talks – brunchion meetings

Innovations & Process Re-engineering

Auto Renewals – Self Certification by compliant industries

Provisional Consent Orders – system generated

Inspections NOT as per will, but Sequence & Priority is XGN aided, otherwise it reflects in Ranking !!!

Any e-file which has exceeded the stipulated days in a work-flow is auto-reflected to the NEXT level for e-Processing

System ensured work flow as per Citizen Charter

e-Communication between stakeholders through SMS, e-Talk, e-Message Box & SMS Alerts (38 Transactions)

Written Instructions during inspections : e-Compliance monitoring

Online live Waste Exchange e-Platform for Co-processing of wastes amongst potential generators and Cement Plants

Approx 12% staff retired – Still could open 13 new field Offices

Time taken for permits reduced by almost 50%

Diverted office staff into “Monitoring Teams” in new field offices

Aided in ISO 9001 & 14001 (BIS), NABL accreditations for LABs & Recognized Research Centre of University

Rejection ratio gone down significantly

Recovery of outstanding amount (Water Cess & LAB Charges) and sharp increase of income

Industries coming to offices reduced significantly (e.g. 128 to 03)

Timely Compliance by industries

e-Governance Impacts – Benefits to GPCB

e – Governance Impacts

Activity Before XGN Year

2014-15

Monitoring Visits in a Year 7,500 54,162

Samples Drawn in a Year 7,100 23,846

Profile Updations by Ind./ HCUs - Monthly No System 9,500 +

Samples Analysed in laboratories – Yearly 3,250 22,549

PDF Docs uploaded by stake holders – Yearly

No System 80,500+

NOC-CCA Applications – Yearly 2,500 17,785Ratio of Rejection – Yearly 40 % 7%Water Cess Returns Filed 1,900 34,500

Total Waste CO-PROCESSED – MT/year (reused as fuel and / or raw material thus reducing environmental impact of the waste)

Nil 37,63,591

e-Governance benefits to businesses

Can submit applications online (24x7, 365 days)

Obtain queries online

Can submit replies online (24x7, 365 days)

Obtain inspection remarks online – facilitate in early compliance

Track the status of permit applications

Obtain permits online (instant provisional orders)

Obtain alerts for non-compliances

Obtain Show Cause Notices, Directions, etc online – can submit compliances online

e-Governance benefits to businesses

Online assessment of water cess, hazardous waste manifests

Online payment (through RTGS)

Obtain sample analysis

Can interact with Board through e-talk (No need to visit offices)

Obtain alerts for dues / payments

Obtain alerts for pending renewal permissions

Obtain status of application through return SMS

All 38 transections between an industry and Board are conveyed through parallel SMSes

85% applications are processed before Fees

85% e-Files Disposals within 41 days (against 120 days defined)

Increased Revenue –Rs 28 Crores to 117 Crores (Fees+ Lab+ Water Cess)

Increase in productivity, Waste as Resource – Pollution Prevention and Control

Defaulters have reduced from 35% to 11 % - Pollution in major estates has significantly reduced

Stakeholder satisfaction due to multilevel SMSing of all 38 transactionsfor timely alerts-efficient delivery system

Provides hassle free, 24 X 7 anywhere e-

access to businesses through unique ID to

perform various activities

Status Tracking (8 Stages) of e-file- Industry know where file is lying

Industry need not to go to Regional Office

physically for submission of

application

e – Governance Impacts

XGN Replications

Already Replicated & extended to :-

• Himachal Pradesh• Uttarakhands• MadhyaPradesh• Karnataka• Goa • Andhra Pradesh

Pipeline (requests received)

• Tamilnadu• Kerala• Haryana• Bihar• Uttar Pradesh• Assam

National e-governance Award (Processes Re-engineering) - 2009 by DoPT, GOI

Special Recognition Award in Environment by Computer Society of India at the CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2010

An Award of Excellence - Under G2B Category by Computer Society of India at the CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2012-13

Recognition by Planning Commission as Best Practice in Environment Sector, 2012

Manthan South Asia – Asia Pacific Award 2014

Recognition by the DIPP, MoCI, GOI, in May 2014 in their report “Best Practices to Improve Business Environment”

Awarded ISO 9001 and 14001 for HO and Regional Offices by BIS and NABL certificates for Laboratories

Awards, Accolades and Recognitions :

“The case study of Gujarat’s XGN – Xtended

Green Node for the State Pollution Control

Dept. Consent management system at the

end of this section provides an insight into

how the State achieved a 100% score on

this area of the assessment.”

Assessment of State Implementation of

Business Reforms

- World Bank Report

September-2015 page 41

Case Study:

Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) adopted a web based application called eXtended Grean Node (XGN) to provide an IT solution for effective implementation of various pollution control board clearances/procedures. XGN provides hassle free 24X7 anywhere e-access to businesses to apply online, track application approvals, file returns and statements and getting online permission under various Acts and rules. Obtain the online permissions from GPCB. The functionality is available on mobile platform as well. The system also provides e-payment facilities through RTGC, as well as allows inspectors to be allocated online. All the important data, permissions, legal documents etc. can remain in the soft form in the database and can be retrieved by the industry whenever needed.

Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms

- World Bank Report September-2015 page 49

Thank you