PNG for industry, green marshals to clean area
NEWDELHI: The state environment department is to do away with some of the sources of pollution in Patparganj and its adjoining areas.
While on one hand a door-to-door checking is being planned, Piped Natural Gas (PNG) would be soon made mandatory in industrial units such as Patparganj, Jhilmil and Sahibabad.
Environment marshals have also been deployed in at least three wards of east Delhi, including IP extension, which forms a part of Patparganj, to keep a check on open garbage burning and pollution from construction sites.
“We are trying a come up with a Standard Operating Procedure on how to conduct this doo-to-door checking. A team would be formed soon. A few industrial units have already been issued show cause notices,” said a senior official of the state environment department.
The issue of pollution from industrial areas of Patparganj and Shahibabad had cropped up in a meeting between Anil Baijal, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and Bhure Lal, chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority in the first week of December.
The L-G had directed the state environment department to devise a mechanism for door-to-door checking of use of non-permitted fuels by industrial units in these two areas.
Hazardous industries were shifted out of the national Capital in the 1990s after an order of the Supreme Court. But environment department sources said that since then several smaller units have cropped up and multiplied.
In a bid to bring down industrial pollution, the environment department will make it mandatory for industrial units to switch to PNG by March 15, 2018. This would help in doing away with some of the authorised and unapproved fuels that are used by some of the units.
“Allegations have surfaced that some industrial units are burning garbage and waste products such as plastic and leather scarps as fuel. Use of banned fuels such as pet coke and furnace oil are also used by some units. If they don’t convert we would shut them down. Many have already started to convert,” said the official.
Sources said that of the 14 environment marshals at least six have been deployed in east Delhi. Two have been placed in IP extension. “We have plans to deploy 70 more such marshals in various areas,” said an official of the state environment department.