Indicating a lax attitude towards pollution control, the latest ratings released by the Odisha Star Rating program has found 73 industries performing way below the standards set by the regulatory authorities in the state.

The state government had in 2018 introduced ‘Star Rating’ to rate industries based on the amount of pollutants generated by them. The Star Rating program utilizes continuously monitored emissions data from major industrial plants and industries are categorized from 1-star to 5-star – from least environment compliant to most.

In the recently released ratings for December 2019 for a total of 130 industries in the state 73 industries were rated a poor 1-star. “Out of 107 industries belonging to 17 categories of high-polluting sectors, only 25 are rated 5-star. Meanwhile, six others have received 4-star and one industry has been rated as 2-star,” the ratings suggested.

Initiated by the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), the Star Rating program is based on the emission of particulate matter (PM 10) where ratings are calculated taking two factors into account. They are: Emission averaged over a period of time with respect to permissible limits and data availability as prescribed by SPCB guidelines.
The program also found that 70 percent of the integrated steel plants have received a 1-star rating in December…