c. State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs): The Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989 assigned the principal role in the safe handling and management of hazardous wastes to the SPCBs.The SPCBs were required to do the following:

• Grant authorization to occupiers/operators to conduct any activity connected with the generation and handling of hazardous wastes. For this, the SPCB has to examine the applications (made by occupiers in Form 1) for authorization to deal with hazardous wastes, and to grant authorization for operating facilities for collection, reception, treatment, storage, transport and disposal of hazardous wastes in Form 2 (Rule 5)
• The State Board was prohibited under Rule 5(4) from granting authorization, if it was satisfied that the occupier did not have the necessary facilities, technical capabilities and equipment for safe handling of hazardous wastes
• The board could suspend or cancel the authorization (Rule 6) or refuse it (Rule 7), if conditions imposed in the letter of authorization were not met by the occupier/operator
• Under section 9, proper records have to be maintained by the occupiers and the returns have to be sent annually to the SPCBs in Form 4. Accidents have to be reported to the SPCB in Form 5.

Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the State Boards were delegated powers of entry and inspection (section 10), sample collection (section 11), and powers for prosecuting (section 19) any industrial unit that violated the prescribed standards and provisions of the rules. The power to give direction (section 5) for closure of the unit covered under the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989, was delegated subsequently in 1997.

d. State Government: Under the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1989, State Governments were entrusted with certain responsibilities in relation to management of hazardous waste. These involved :

• Identification of sites for the disposal of hazardous wastes in their states, after ascertaining the suitability of the sites through Environmental Impact Assessment Studies (Rule 8)
• Preparation and maintenance of an inventory of such sites (Rule 8)
• Preparation and notification of hazardous waste dump sites (Rule 8)

Thus, the State Governments were to undertake a continuing program for identification of sites for disposal of hazardous wastes. They were also required to undertake Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies before identifying such waste disposal sites. More importantly, they were required to publish an inventory of site within which hazardous wastes had at any time been stored or disposed of together with the location and description, and also information relating to the amount, nature, and toxicity of hazardous waste at each of such sites along with the inventory.