IT, process industries, select condos in Haryana exempted from electricity generator ban

new delhi: The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) on Wednesday granted exemption to information technology, process industries and some residential complexes in Haryana from the ban on electricity generators.

The pollution watchdog had earlier banned the use of electricity generators, except for essential services such as hospitals and railways, in Delhi-NCR cities from October 15.

The Haryana administration had written to the EPCA, saying around 16,200 people in some residential complexes and condominiums in Gurgaon and Faridabad will be affected by the ban as their developers or builders have not yet taken electricity connections.

EPCA head Bhure Lal wrote to Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan, "EPCA is granting exemption to these 15 cases as requested by you on the assurance that this will be only for the period up to November 30."

The pollution watchdog also granted permission to use of generator sets as a secondary source of power in IT and process industries "where servers cannot afford a break of even a single second".

The EPCA, however, said the institutions and industries will have to maintain a "logbook of use of DG (diesel generator) sets to ensure that these are only used when there is disruption in regular electricity supply".