| File Note: |
Kindly find attached the detailed inspection report along with agenda note. Further observations are as under: -
Earlier, the industry was granted consent to operate under Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 vide no. CTOW/Renewal/ASR/2025/28283750 dated 23/04/2025, valid upto 31/03/2027 and consent to operate under Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 vide no. CTOA/Renewal/ASR/2024/21119893 dated 12/04/2024, valid upto 30/06/2024 for production of WHITE CRYSTAL SUGAR FROM SUGAR CANE & SUGAR BEET @ 500Metric Tonnes/Day by product BAGASSE FROM CANE @1600Metric Tonnes/Day MOLASSIS FROM CANE & SUGAR BEET @225Metric Tonnes/Day BEET PULP IN BEET SEASON @1100Metric Tonnes/Day using SUGAR CANE /SUGAR BEET @5000Metric Tonnes/Day as raw material with usual terms and conditions.
A telephonic complaint was again received from Sh.Mandeep Singh Dhardeo and area under complaint was visited by the Regional Office on 10.06.2025. During visit a house in adjoining village namely Buttar was visited and observed that there is problem of spreading ash in the area. The owner of the house informed that there is problem of spreading ash from the stack of the boiler of M/s Rana Sugars Ltd., spread of ash on the roof of his house was also shown by him. The industry was also visited and stack emission samples of the industry were collected and as per analysis report received vide Air Lab, Head Office, Patiala letter no. 21699 dated 23.06.2025, the results of the PM are 272 mg/nm³, which reveals that the industry is not achieving the prescribed standard of Particulate Matter as prescribed by the Board vide letter no. 26901 dated 27.10.2023.
The industry was given personal hearing before the Hon'ble Chairperson of the Board on 01.08.2025, wherein it was decided as under: -
1. A committee comprising of Er. Vijay Kumar, SEE, Jalandhar, Er.Jatinder Soni, EE, RO, Kapurthala, Er. Vinod Kumar, AEE, RO, Batala and Smt. Sandeep Kaur, ASO, Zonal Lab, Jalandhar is constituted and committee shall visit the industry within 02 weeks and submit detailed report with regard to management of fly ash and adequacy of APCDs with complete monitoring along with recommendations.
2. The industry shall submit Bank Guarantee amounting to Rs. 5 lac as an assurance to comply with the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
3. The consent case of the industry shall be decided after the receipt of report of Committee, accordingly.
In compliance to the decision at point no. 1, the Committee visited the industry on 19.09.2025 and collected Air emission samples and submitted repot on 13.10.2025. Due to non-compliance of prescribed emission standards and decisions of personal hearing dated 01.08.2025, the consent to operate under Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 was refused vide no. OCMMS/CTO(Air)/2025/013025 dated 15.12.2025.
The industry has failed to submit compliance to the decisions of personal hearing dated 01.08.2025 and still violating various provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. Accordingly, the industry was issued Notice to issue directions u/s 31-A of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 with personal hearing before the Chairperson of the Board on 16.12.2025 which was postponed and held on 23.12.2025.
During the hearing, the representative of the industry submitted that as per their consent to Operate (CTO), the standard of emission should be less than 150 mg/Nm³ and their sample results falls within standards as per Consent to Operate (CTO). Further, PPCB letter Dated 27.10.2023 states that the Particulate Matter standard for Agro based/Bagasse based Boiler should be 250mg/Nm³. Notification from Government of India Dated 16.05.2023 allows upto 250 mg/Nm³ for Agro based/Bagasse based Boiler. Their Boiler is a Bagasse based Boiler and hence Particulate Matter concentration is 98mg/Nm³ which is within the allowed standard. Regarding Non-submission of Bank Guarantee they request to waiver of the same as the Industry has been compliant all along and to avoid extra company in the beginning of season as the funds are prioritized for cane payment.
After hearing the officer of the Board, representative of the industry and facts on the record file, the Chairperson of the Board decided that: -
1. The industry shall submit Bank Guarantee amounting to Rs. 5 lac (as imposed during hearing dated 1.8.2025) as an assurance to comply with the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 with 3 Days.
2. The industry shall also submit Bank Guarantee amounting to Rs. 25 lac as an assurance to comply with the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974 within 3 Days.
3. The matter be forwarded to the Environmental Compensation verification committee for imposition of Environmental Compensation as per Environmental laws.
4. The Regional office Amritsar Shall visit the industry, verify compliance made by the industry, recollect Stack emission sample and send report and recommendations accordingly within 1 month.
The point wise compliance are as under: -
1. The industry has submitted Bank Guarantee amounting to Rs. 5 lac (as imposed during hearing dated 1.8.2025) vide no. 0236IGPER000126 dated 05.02.2026, valid upto 04.02.2027 as an assurance to comply with the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 with 3 Days.
2. The industry has submitted Bank Guarantee amounting to Rs. 25 lac vide no. 0236IGPER000226 dated 05.02.2026, valid upto 04.02.2027 as an assurance to comply with the provisions of Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974.
3. The matter has been forwarded to the Environmental Compensation Verification Committee for finalization of the Environmental Compensation to be imposed upon the industry vide e-office file No. 365943. The draft orders for imposition of Environmental Compensation (EC) have been duly vetted by Sh. Amrik Singh, Senior Law Officer, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and have been submitted for the signature of the Competent Authority.
4. The industry has submitted Air emission analysis report issued by Board’s lab vide letter endst No. 311-13 dated 20/03/2026, which reveals that the concentration of particulate matters of Boiler of capacity 120 TPH i.e. 42 mg/Nm3 and Boiler of capacity 50 TPH i.e. 46 mg/Nm3 are within limits as prescribed by the Board.
Now the industry has applied for obtaining consent of the Board under Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 for same production capacity.
Detail of the case are us under: -
1. The industry has submitted CA certificate dated 16.04.2026, with value of gross fixed assets as Rs. 364.00 Crore as on 31.03.2026. The industry has deposited of Rs. 785000/- vide UTR No. UCBAR52025032800824704 dated 28.03.2025 as consent fee under Air Act, 1981., which it is adequate upto 31.03.2027 under Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
The industry was already surprisingly visited by Er. Vijay Kumar, Senior Environmental Engineer on 11.03.2026 and it was observed as under: -
1. The industry was in operation and representative of the industry informed that the season was going to be over in few days.
2. The ETP installed by the industry was in operation. The flow rate at inlet of ETP during visit was 57.34 m3/hr and Totalizer reading was 331095.36 m3. At outlet the flow rate was 32.97 m3/hr and totalizer was 323956 m3.
3. Effluent samples were collected from the outlet of ETP same have been sent to Zonal lab Jalandhar for analysis.
4. The industry has maintained the record for operation of the ETP.
5. The industry has installed online meters indicating the value for pH as 8.09, BOD as 14.03 mg/l, COD as 117.9 mg/l and TSS as 23.5 mg/l.
6. The industry is utilizing sludge generated from ETP in its farms and some of sludge is also lifted by the nearby farmers to utilize the same as manure.
7. The industry is required to clean the weeds in the ETP area which was seen grown around the components of ETP.
8. The industry has plantation area of around 20 acres which is adequate for discharge of treated effluent around 985 Kl/d.
9. The industry has installed SPM meter over its stack of Bagasse fired Boilers of capacity 50TPH and 120 TPH and readings on SPM meters were 33.21 and 36.98 mg/Nm3 respectively.
10. Separate Energy meters have been installed at APCDs readings at the time of visit were 32421 and 36987 Kwh respectively.
11. The representative of the industry informed that All OCEMs have already been connected with Board’s/CPCB’s servers.
12. No black smoke was observed and the stack was almost clear during visit.
13. The industry has installed Three Field ESPs as APCD which were in operation. Stack emission sample was collected during the visit and the same has been sent to Zonal lab Jalandhar for analysis.
14. The industry is disposing off its Ash generated from the boiler with the farmers of the area.
15. The industry has obtained the authorization for cat 5.1 under 1st schedule of HWM Rules, 2016.
The industry is complying with the decisions of personal hearing as well as the industry is also complying with the conditions of the consent granted to it.
In view of above, it is recommended that consent to operate under Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 may be granted to the industry upto 31.03.2027 for production of WHITE CRYSTAL SUGAR FROM SUGAR CANE & SUGAR BEET @ 500Metric Tonnes/Day with suitable terms and conditions
Competency Chairperson of the Board
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