Almost 100 industries in the state are emitting particulate matter which is almost twice as much the safe limit prescribed by the Union environment ministry. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has warned the polluting industries to take up mitigation measures in three months.
The statistics are based on the star-rating programme, a first of its kind project jointly taken up by the MPCB, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India) and other organizations. To provide information on environmental performance of the industries to public, the programme gives star ratings to the industries based on the median concentration of latest stack (chimney) samples for particulate matter (PM).

According to the standards laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the permissible limit for PM stack emissions is 150 milligrams per normal metric cube (mg/NM3). In Maharashtra, 99 industries have failed in meeting this standard out of the 252 industries associated with the programme.

The highest number of industries with one-star rating are in…