Pulwama, Mar 25: The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Tuesday clarified that the moratorium on the establishment of air-polluting industries in the Khrew area will remain in force until the annual Air Quality Index (AQI) falls below 100.
The information was provided by the Minister in charge of Forests, Ecology, and Environment in the Legislative Assembly in response to a question by MLA Pampore, Retired Justice Hasnain Masoodi.
The House was informed that over the past four years, the AQI at Khrew Monitoring Station has consistently remained above 100, placing it within the “Moderately Polluted” category. The recorded AQI readings were 119 in 2021, 123 in 2022, 125 in 2023, and 119 in 2024.
To control air pollution, the Minister stated that the J&K Pollution Control Committee (JKPCC) imposed a moratorium on the establishment of air-polluting industries through Order No. 41-JKPCC of 2021, dated 22.01.2021. The ban applies to cement plants, stone crushers, brick kilns, hot mix plants, and mining blocks.
The moratorium was reviewed in 2023, and it was decided that the ban on new industrial units would remain in effect until the annual average AQI falls below 100 or the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) score drops below 60.
The House was also informed that JKPCC has taken legal action against 86 defaulting industries, imposing environmental compensation and, in some cases, closing down units that failed to comply with regulations.
It was added that cement plants must install an On-line Continuous Emission Monitoring System (OCEMS) to track emissions. The real-time data from these monitoring systems is uploaded to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) server to ensure strict compliance with environmental standards.
