The Punjab Government today signed a memorandum with CSIR-National Environment Engineering & Research Institution (NEERI) with a view to address various environmental issues of the state.The MoU was exchanged by Principal Secretary Science, Technology and Environment Rakesh Verma on behalf of Punjab Government and Senior Most Scientist of CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur Dr. Hamant Purohit at CSIR Science Centre, Vigyan Kendra, New Delhi to carry forward collaborative activities for a period of five years.Giving details regarding MoU, Rakesh Verma said that NEERI would extend requisite technical support to Science, Technology & Environment department for effective monitoring of Environmental Protection Action Plans prepared for clean rivers, clean air and waste management. The expertise of NEERI would also be utilised for carrying out performance audit of regulatory bodies and third party audit of major STPs, CETPs and ETPs. NEERI would also extend support to the State for providing IoT based solutions for online environmental compliance to strengthen corrective measures for abatement of pollution. He said that this collaboration would go a long way in mitigating air and noise pollution besides waste management with the active involvement of different stakeholder departments. Pertinently, the NEERI is a part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Network and has established Research and Development expertise in the area of environmental science, engineering and monitoring besides addressing a range of environmental problems posed by Industry and government institutions. Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Joint Director Pardeep Garg, Senior Scientific Officer of environment department Gurharminder Singh and Principal Scientist & Head Business Development Group Dr. Amit Bansiwal and Principal Scientist NEERI Dr. Satish Dabe.