In what could be one of the effective ways to deal with the issue of air pollution linked to stubble burning, all coal based thermal power plants located in Delhi-NCR and adjoining area will have to mandatorily use a minimum 5% blend of pellets made of crop residue with coal annually. Environment ministry has come out with draft rules in this regard, making a provision of penalty (environmental compensation) for non-compliant power plants from the compliance year 2024-25 onwards. Final rules - called the Agro residue utilization by thermal power plants rules, 2023 - will be notified after two months by incorporating views of stakeholders on the draft, issued on 16/02/2023. The ministry sought experts and others interested in making any objections or suggestions on the proposals to forward their comments within 60 days. [2]
Links:
[1] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/agro-residue-utilization-thermal-power-plants-rules-2023
[2] http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Gazatte notification.pdf
[3] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/publisher/ministry-environment-0
[4] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/publisher/forest-and-climate-change-moefcc
[5] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/thermal-power-plants
[6] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/crop-residues
[7] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/india
[8] http://admin.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/compensation