Bhubaneswar: The 35th foundation day of State Pollution Control Board Odisha was celebrated Saturday at Soochana Bhawan here.
The meeting was attended by Member Secretary Debidutt Biswal, Professor Satyaban Jena as Guest of Honour, Chief Guest and Additional Secretary in Forest and Enviorment department Suresh Chandra Mohapatra and R Balkrishnan Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner and Chairman of State Pollution Control Board.
Speaking on the occasion, Balkrishnan said, “Climate change or eco-issues are the challenges of the modern era. Kerala flood and many other natural disasters are due to negligence in eco-management. We need a holistic approach to tackle the environment.”
Mohapatra said he was very happy and it gave him immense pleasure to celebrate this day and as the Board has been adjudged as the finest in India.
Constituted in 1983, the Board is known for its technical strength and working capability. He also said, “Our main aim is to prevent and control pollution. The enforcing agencies also help out in our environmental acts and rules. Online consent and authorisation management in the last three years have changed our working ideas. We have even controlled many industrial areas and nowadays the Board is more concerned with the climate change, large scale of plastic waste, bio-medical waste which are the real threats. The Board is more conscious to control industrial pollution. It’s up to us how to control these threats and to monitor water quality is a major challenge as most of the rivers are getting polluted’.
Professor Jena also expressed concern over how plastic is messing up the eco-system. He mentioned about how the state government has taken steps to ban plastic products and how the Board is getting more of public support.
He also specified that Chief Minister has shown a keen interest in banning plastics to keep pollution under control. On this occasion a leaflet named Paribesh Samachar and a book called Mangroves Atlas of Bhitarkanika were unveiled.
PNN