Overview of Gujarat Pollution Control Board

Gujarat Pollution Control Board, commonly known as GPCB, was constituted by the Government of Gujarat on 15th October 1974 under the provision of the Water Act, 1974. The basic functions of the GPCB are pollution control and protection of the environmental quality with sustainable development.GPCB has been tasked with issuing consent NOCs to industries and authorization certificates to specific services in the State.GPCB also organizes awareness programmed from time to time on local issues of municipal solid wastes, bio-medical wastes and plastic waste issues, besides water, air and land pollution generated from various industries. Stress is also given on building environmental infrastructures to meet challenges of environmental pollution under the ‘Swarnim Gujarat’ programmed of the Government of Gujarat. The Board is tackling several critical issues related to the environment through its 28 regional Offices that carry out intense monitoring of industrial effluents, gaseous emissions and hazardous waste disposal systems. The Board critically examines the location clearance cases. It determines various conditions and requirements pertaining to environmental pollution control, which is likely to pollute water or air due to various processes/ operations. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board enforces provisions of the following Acts, Rules and Directives issued by the central and State authorities from time to time.

 The Water (P&CP) Act, 1974

•       The Water (P&CP) Cess Act, 1977
•       The Air (P&CP) Act, 1981
•       The Environment (Protection) Act,1986
•       The Hazardous and Other Waste (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules,2016.
•       The Plastic Waste (Management) Rules, 2016
•       The Bio-Medical Waste Rules of 2016
•       The Construction and Demolition Waste Rules of 2016
•       The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016
•       The Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989
•       The Coastal Zone Regulation-Declaration Notification, 1991.
•       The Environmental Clearance [including EIA-Environment, Impact Assessment] for expansion/modernization of activity or new projects, Procedure Notification, 1994
•       The Environmental Public Hearing Rules, 1997.
•       The Rules for the Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous micro-organism.
•       Genetically Engineered Organism Cess, 1989.
•       The utilization of Fly Ash- Notification of Direction, 1989.
•       The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
•       The Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
•       The Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules
•       The Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001
•       The Environmental Audit Scheme, 1996.
•       The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991.
•       The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.
•       The Environmental Audit Scheme-1996 with 2014 modification
•       The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991