New Delhi, August 19 2009: Manipur Government has demanded sufficient fund for opening the Integrated Forest Protection Force in Manipur.

The Chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board and Member of Manipur Legislative Assembly, E Dwijamani Singh representing Manipur, attended the National Conference of Environment & Forest Ministers of States and Union Territories, held at the Plenary Hall of the Vigyan Bhawan here on August 18 .

In the conference chaired by the Union Minister of Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh, Manipur Government also urged to extend the facilities of Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which has been extended to other States.

The State Govt also highlighted the shortage of manpower in Manipur in the sector of environment and forest.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, in his inaugural address of the conference, highlighted the importance of the conservation of natural resources, modernization of forest and wildlife management, sound environmental planning and sustainable development.

The Chairman of Manipur Pollution Control Board E Dwijamani Singh accompanied with the Principal Secretary (Environment & Forest) AN Jha, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest S Singsit, Conservator of Forest (Wild life) and Member Secretary of Manipur Pollution Control Board (MPCB) K Jagadishwor Singh, Dr M Gonchandra Sharma, Principal Scientific Officer (MPCB) in the conference.

The conference, among other things, agreed to establish an empowered Environmental Protection Authority, within a year, under the Environment Protection Act, which would be an autonomous, professional and science-based body; to strengthen the State Pollution Control Boards by allocating greater budgetary resources and sanctioning additional posts wherever needed in terms of technical manpower and infrastructure, as a primary responsibility of the State Government; and to set up and strengthen, in view of the decentralized appraisal procedures, State-level Environmental Impact Assessment Authorities and Coastal Zone Management Authorities, with professional and technical expertise in the environment and forest related fields, supported by technology-enabled monitoring mechanisms for enhancing environmental compliance.

The Conference was preceded by two interactive meetings of Union Minister of Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh with Principal Chief Conservators of Forest and Chief Wildlife Wardens followed by with Chairmen and Member secretaries of Pollution Control Boards at Ashoka Hotel here on August 17.In the pollution control meeting, the Chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board E.Dwijamani singh with Member Secretary (MPCB) K Jagadishwor Singh and Principal Scientific Officer (MPCB) Dr M Gonchandra Sharma attended.

Talking about the activities of the Manipur Pollution Control Board, the Member Secretary K Jagadishwor Singh said here today that the State Board had been actively involved in complying and enforcement of Pollution Laws in Manipur.

Under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the Board had been monitoring of water quality of rivers, lakes, ponds and ground water resources of Manipur by setting up 39 numbers of the Water Quality Stations for river, five for lake, 13 for ground water and 13 for ponds under various programmes like GEMS (Global Environmental Monitoring Systems), MINARS (Monitoring of Indian National Aquatic Resources).

Another 50 new Water Quality Stations for Manipur had been sanctioned by the Central Pollution Control Board.

He further stated that the monitoring results obtained during the year 2008-09 indicated the organic pollution continued to be predominant form of pollution at aquatic resources of Manipur.

Nambul River was found polluted near Thong Nambonbi, Keishamthong, Keishampat and Heirangoithong.

Water of Loktak Lake was also highly polluted because of inflow pollutants into the lake from rivers, streams and agricultural fields.

The Member Secretary stated that the MPCB also monitored air quality of Imphal City at Nagamapal and Uripok junction in the months of October 2008 and January 2009 to asses the deteriorating air quality due to the ongoing sewage and road development works.

The level of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) was 480 to 589 micro gram/m cube which was more than the permissible limits of 200 micro gram/m cube for a residential area.

The MPCB had already appealed to the State Government and respective departments to initiate proper actions such as regular sprinkling of water to reduce the level of suspended dust particles, particularly during road construction and improvement works taken up along densely populated localities of Imphal City.

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