The Odisha government today launched a star-rating program for industries in a bid to cut air pollution. The first-of-its-kind transparency initiative in the state will categorize industries from 1-star to 5-stars, with 1-star being the least compliant and 5-stars being the most compliant to pollution standards set by the regulator.

The program aims to inform residents and industries and also strengthen the regulatory efforts by the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) to reduce pollution.

“The Star Rating program will help the public to find out whether industries in their vicinity are fair in their environmental compliance and empower them to strengthen regulations through public participation,” Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said while launching the program. He also unveiled a new website (www.ospcb.info) where citizens can access the information.

Commenting on the development, Odisha SPCB Chairman R Balakrishnan said the board has been collecting data through a Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) on industrial air pollution emissions. He also thanked the researchers from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India) for ….