NEW DELHI: The government has called for strengthening hazardous waste management rules especially at the port level to ensure that such material was not dumped in the country. There has been a heightened level of concern over the dumping of hazardous waste in the aftermath of the Mayapuri radiation incident. 

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to the ministry of finance to set up a joint mechanism to sensitise customs deparment on the import of wates. Mr Ramesh has also writtent to the minister of commerce Anand Sharma to ensure that if hazardous waste import should not be allowed under an Open General Licence (OGL), and that its import be done only as per the Hazardous Waste Management Rules 2008. 

Mr Ramesh told Parliament on Wednesday, that there was a "need to ensure better coordination with the customs authorities which we are attempting. We also need to ensure that our trade policy does not allow the free import of wastes." The minister acknowledged that the country’s ports were not adequately equipped to check the import of hazardous materials. Mr Ramesh said that procedures at ports will be tightened to bring about a greater control over the import of hazardous wastes. 

To this end, the minister has written to the finance ministry on a joint mechanism to sensitise customs department. "I have written to the Finance Minister very recently that we need to have a joint mechanism between the ministry of environment and forest and the ministry of finance so that the customs department becomes much more sensitive to this area," 

The responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the rules, Mr Ramesh said, lies primarily with the State Pollution Control Boards. With regard to the incident of radiation in Mayapuri scrap market in Delhi, the minister said the Hazardous Waste Management Rules cover only the bio-medical wastes, hazardous wastes and e-wastes. It does not cover radio-active wastes which fall under the Atomic Energy Act. 

India generates roughly six million tonnes of hazardous waste per year, of which about 50 per cent goes in for re-cycling. There are 25 treatment, storage and disposal facilities across the country and eight more are in the pipeline. 

"Considering the importance that e-waste is assuming importance in our country, we have come up with a separate set of e-waste rules and these will be notified very shortly," he said. Mr Rmaesh has announced that e-waste rules would be finalised by mid-May. 

The minister assured "the Central Government will not shirk its responsibility and come up with strictest possible rules. I am not shirking the responsibility. I am prepared to take action on our own and I have instructed the Central Pollution Control Board to go ahead and take action where there is a clear violation of the hazardous waste management rules. But I want to say that framing the rules is only one side of the equation. The implementation and monitoring of these rules, in a country like ours, is the responsibility of the state and local authorities." 

Mr Ramesh has repeatedly stressed states have been loathe to take tough action on account of the high levels of employment provided by units, which are mostly in the unorganised sector."I agree, this is not good employment that we are providing. Just because we are providing employment does not mean we should keep open Mayapuri type facilities that we saw recently leading to radioactive contamination. We should be strict in this regard," the minister said.