6,400 challaned in a year for causing air pollution

NEW DELHI: The civic agencies in the capital have prosecuted nearly 6,400 violators for causing air pollution and recovered a fine of ₹6.17 crores from June 30, 2016 to 2017, revealed the data released by the three Municipal Corporations (MCDs) on Tuesday.

In their stringent action against the people who are not adhering to the norms despite repeated warnings, the North MCD issued 1,194 challans to construction sites and 361 challans for burning of leaves, while the South MCD has issued 1,418 and 475 challans, respectively.

In east Delhi, the MCD issued 630 challans for burning leaves and 2,303 for prevalent air pollution at construction sites.

“The number of challans have increased in the last two months as earlier, the civic agencies were busy in improving the sanitation conditions in their jurisdictions for the last few months. Taking advantage of the lean period, the violations have increased manifold. As a result we again cracked down heavily on violators,” said senior officials from the department of environment management services, EDMC.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed all land owning agencies in Delhi to impose a fine of ₹5,000 on persons found burning waste in the open and ₹5 lakh fine on the owners/builders, who are found violating dust control measures.

Apart from this, the civic agencies have also taken action against the people stacking construction material and running illegal industries in the city. “The North Corporation alone has issued 686 notices and sealed 154 industries operating in various areas. The action has been taken after issuing the advisory to the defaulters,” said a senior official from the North MCD.

The purpose of the drive is to keep the environment pollution free and not challan people unnecessarily, said Praveen Gupta, commissioner, North Corporation.

“Before challaning violators, the agency is creating infrastructure facilities for public, simultaneously. Still some people don’t co-operate,” said Gupta. The agency has imposed 26,000 sanitation challans in its jurisdiction in the last one year.

The South MCD issued 905 challans to people who parked their old vehicles on roadsides for long time.