Nineteen out of 48 industries surveyed in Vidarbha have been given 5-star rating for being ‘least polluting’ while two have got 1-star for being the ‘most polluting’. Industries of the region have fared better than Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) where 29 out of 50 industries were found to be emitting excessive particulate matter.
This was brought to the fore by the star-rating programme, the first of its kind project jointly taken up by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India), the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard Kennedy School and Tata Centre for Development (TCD).

As per the data, the two most polluting industries are based in Chandrapur…