Shillong, Mar 18: The state government has asked the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) to conduct comprehensive audit and inspection of all industrial units in Byrnihat town and submit action taken report within seven days.
The directive was issued on Tuesday in the wake of media reports quoting survey that branded Byrnihat as having “most polluted air in the world”.
The MSPCB will submit the report to Forest and Environment department, with which chief minister Conrad K Sangma had reviewed the situation following the media report.
The chief minister has already made a statement in the state assembly in this regard and intimated the matter to his Assam counterpart seeking collaborative action as the industrial zone lies along Meghalaya-Assam border.
“Most of the polluting industries of red category are in Assam side of Byrnihat,” said commissioner & secretary (Forest & Environment) Pravin Bakshi in a statement.
Informing that Pollution Control Board Assam (PCBA) has already initiated action for audit and inspection of their industrial units, Bakshi said, “Meghalaya government is also initiating stringent measures to monitor and review pollution on our side.”
Earlier, the chief minister contested the media report stating that there was huge difference between the pollution figures quoted in the report and those available with the state government on the same area.
While the report stated PM2.5 concentration to be 128.2 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3), the data generated from MSPCB’s four manual ambient air quality monitoring stations at Byrnihat show annual average PM2.5 concentration as 50.1 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) in 2024.
“Further, as per MSPCB’s data from January to March (first week), 2025, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Byrnihat was observed to be ‘satisfactory’,” he added.
As part of government action against erring industries, closure notices were issued to seven industrial units and environmental compensation imposed on two industrial units in Byrnihat after violations of pollution norms were detected during inspections carried out by MSPCB this year.
