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India generates about five million tonnes of hazarduous waste. But systems to manage it are non-existent
Boards fail to even list the guilty, leave alone penalise
| State | Estimated HWG units |
Licensed HWG units (in per cent) |
Sites for waste disposal |
Sites operational |
| West Bengal | 413 | 15.5 | 5 | 0 |
| Rajasthan | 174 | 63.07 | 5 | 0 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 25 | 76.9 | 1 | 0 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 591 | 71.58 | 3 | 0 |
Use of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) is a rare phenomenon in India
In Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar about 50 per cent of the industries with the ETPs do not comply with prescribed standards
Who sleeps on these pollution control boards?
| State | Total number of members |
Members whose qualifications are known |
Civil servants |
Other non- technical members |
Technical members |
| Sikkim | 14 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| Tamil Nadu | 10 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
| Maharashtra | 13 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 15 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 15 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 |
| State | As per cent of total expenditure |
| Bihar | 0.084 |
| Goa | 0 |
| Karnataka | 0 |
| Maharashtra | 0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 0.14 |
| Rajasthan | 0 |
The Sikkim board, which is without a chairperson, has 14 members. Eight of these are from bureaucracy, four are panchayat members and one is a retired teacher
| State | Polluting units |
Technical staff |
Percentage |
| Andhra Pradesh | 7,521 | 88 | 1.17 |
| Goa | 248 | 4 | 1.61 |
| West Bengal | 3,414 | 85 | 2.49 |
| Bihar | 1,663 | 171 | 10.28 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 6,441 | 199 | 3.09 |
| Maharashtra | 9,035 | 292 | 3.23 |
Neither the technical staff in the boards nor the training they are imparted has any correlation with the size or spread of polluting units in the states
Source: Anon 2001, ‘Report on State Pollution Control Boards’, Planning Commission of India, Government of India, Chapter 3,4,5
