Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country hence the GoI has launched the National Skill Development Mission to create convergence across sectors and States in terms of skill training activities. The Mission is being implemented through a streamlined institutional mechanism involving contribution from all the Ministries and this is aimed to rapidly implement and scale up skill development efforts across the country.

       In line with the Skill India Mission, the  Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has taken up an initiative for skill development in the environment sector for the benefit of the target ones. An exposure programme, in coordination with Regional Directorate, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Bhopal was organised at Environment Surveillance Centre, MPPCB, Bhopal on 15^th January 2019 for students who came from Science and Engineering background. The activities and role of Emergency Response Centre, instituted by MoEF&CC, in dealing with chemical accidents and application of real-time monitoring instruments for continuous surveillance of industrial and ambient pollution were presented to the participants.

 

        The M.P. Pollution Control Board, in co-ordination with Regional Directorate, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Bhopal organised a technology exposure meet for the participants under GoI’s Green Skill Development Programme on 15^th January 2019 at Environment Surveillance Centre (ESC), Bhopal. The participating students were from Engineering and Science background. The participating group was led by Dr. Y.K. Saxena, Scientist and two other officials from CPCB and Dr. Dharmendra Dugaiya and two other officials from Indian Institute of Forests Management (IIFM).

 The programme started with the welcome address by Dr. Rajendra Chaturvedi, Scientist, Emergency Response Centre (ERC), M.P. Pollution Control Board. Welcoming the guests and the participants, he briefly highlighted the activities that are undertaken by ERC Bhopal, which is one of the four ERCs established by the MoEF&CC in the country to deal with chemical accidents and related issues. The participants were also made aware about remote surveillance activities, using state-of-the-art real-time monitoring equipment, to keep a constant watch on industrial and ambient pollution across the State of Madhya Pradesh.

The training session was opened with the deliberation on Emergency Response Centre by Dr. Rajendra Chaturvedi, Scientist. The aims, objectives, functions and other support activities of ERC were presented. An essence of technical strengths of ERC was given to the participants as how the ERC assists the target groups in times of chemical crisis situations. An exposure on chemical safety equipment, personnel protective equipment and other safety gadgets, available with ERC, that are useful for handling and tackling chemical emergencies, were also discussed.

He also briefed about various types of the database and other technical capabilities available with the ERC, including Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), International Chemical Safety Card (ICSC), Pesticide Datasheets, Poison monographs, Risk Management Tools etc, and also explained how it can be helpful to the industries in the event of emergency, sighting the examples of past technical support rendered by ERC at different occasions including natural disasters like Earthquake, Oil spills and Tsunami.

This was followed by brief talk about ESC which primarily keep a track of industries for ‘self monitoring of compliance scheme’. The aims and objectives of ESC were explained alongwith the continuous real-time monitoring/surveillance equipment on remote basis. The information about the wide network established in the State for keeping a close watch on the environmental health was also shared with the group.

The ESC team, Shri Pracheer Dixit, Shri Rakesh Goutam, Shri Sukant Choukikar and Shri Dheeraj Wadukle, presented about mechanism and the technology being used at the ESC for remote surveillance of environmental status, viz. quality of emission from industries, quality status of effluent generated from the industries, vigil of industrial campus through live video streaming etc., using the equipment installed at the remote industry end. An idea about how the quality of data, being received at ESC end, is ascertained/validated, was also given during the presentation.

Literature on environmental awareness, including information on Antidotes for chemicals, Transportation of hazardous and dangerous goods, Acid rain, Global warming, Preparation of On-site and off-site emergency plans, Ozone depleting substances etc. were provided to the participants during exposure session. Other relevant information in soft form was also shared.

The last part of the session involved an open forum where the participants raised their queries which were responded by the ERC team.

The programme ended with thanks to the Chair, visiting GoI officials and the participants.