Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board conducted the first day of the training cum certificate course on Environmental Management & Pollution Control at HIPA Fairlawn imla on 29th July 2022. The training was attended by participants from district administrations/functionaries such as ADCs, SDMs, BDOs and Executive Officers of urban local bodies from across the State. Prabodh Saxena (IAS) Addl. Chief Secretary (EST) to the GoHP cum Chairman, HP State Pollution Control Board graced the occasion as the chief guest and guided the participants on various important issues pertaining to environment management and pollution control. . Lalit Jain (IAS) Director, Environment, GoHP also remained present during the first day of the training programme.
Prabodh Saxena (IAS) said the State is pioneer in implementing the HP Biodegradable Act in 1995. The State happened to be the first to impose state-wide ban on the use of plastic carry bags. In addition, the State also became the first to have implemented 15 percent mandatory flow discharge for all Hydel Electricity Projects to maintain ecological flow in the river system. The main objective of the training workop is to sensitise the executives, decision makers, and other stakeholders about the environment legislations as the environmental issues are getting increasingly complex day by day. Hence, environmental laws all get more prominence and implementing them in letter and spirit is of utmost challenge for the environmental regulators and managers. The State Board is focussing more on training and also training of trainers, who all impart knowledge to the ground level workers. The State Board also intends to impart training on environmental legislations to the science teachers of senior secondary schools or above so that students are sensitised about the importance of environmental legislations. He said that Govt. of India imposed nation-wide ban on manufacture, import, sale and use of selected single use plastic items from 1st July 2022. In continuation of this, the State Government has also issued a notification on 22nd July 2022 under HP Biodegradable Act 1995 and authorised a number of officers from various departments to challan the violators and compound the offence.
The current workop aims to sensitise the participants so that effective implementation of above notification is ensured. The first day training started with the lighting of lamps from dignitaries such as Ms. Jyoti Rana (HAS), Jt. Director, HIPA, . R.N. Jindal (Rtd.) MOEF&CC GOI, Chief Environmental Engineer, HPSPCB. This was followed by welcome speech by Dr. R.K. Nadda Chief Environmental Engineer, HP State Pollution Control Board. Jt. Director HIPA also gave a broader overview of the role of the society and general public at large and emphasized that it is our collective responsibilities to contribute towards effective control of air and water pollution and sustainable waste management. R.N. Jindal, Director (Retd.) MoEF&CC GOI started the first session with the presentation on Legal framework for Environmental Protection and Pollution Control with the focus on Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974 and Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. He subsequently also explained the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Rules framed thereunder in greater detail. The participants were then taken to the exposure visit to Sewage Treatment Plant (north disposal imla) and Solid Waste Processing Facility (Bharyal) by the HP Pollution Control Board.
