With parts of the northern plains, including Delhi, in the grip of severe air pollution, and with many other parts of the country facing challenges related to pollution, garbage, and the emerging climate crisis, the Union environment ministry is preparing a National Environmental Plan, which will be ready by January 2020, and will address issues related to waste management and pollution.
“We are coming up with two national plans. While one is the National Action Plan for Climate Change, the other is the National Environmental Plan (NEP). NEP will focus more on solid waste management — plastic and biomedical waste among others. Districts in all states have been asked to come up with district environmental plans. We have already received plans from 102 districts,” said CK Mishra, Union environment secretary.
What makes the upcoming plan unique is that this will be the first national environmental plan with a bottom-up approach, with inputs coming from the districts.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has directed magistrates (DM) of all districts across India to prepare District Environment Plans (DEMs). These DEMs will be compiled to prepare State Environmental Plans, which in turn will be put together to prepare the National Environmental Plan.
CPCB has developed a model that DMs may use for preparing DEMs.
Read more of this in a report by Joydeep Thakur published in Hindustan Times... (Link given below)
