Massive drive against polluting units today
NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has planned an intensive sealing drive against polluting units in outer Delhi’s Tikri, Mundka and Nangloi on Friday and Saturday.
Officials said action will be taken without serving any showcause notice to these units which are running illegally from nonconforming areas. The decision to carry out the sealing drive was taken on the direction of Environment Pollution Control Committee (EPCA) after reports of rising pollution levels in these areas due to open burning of plastic waste.
EPCA chairman Bhurelal said, “These units are running from every second residential property in the area. The factory owners are burning plastic waste to produce granules and also using rubber as fuel. These are highly toxic to the environment. We had identified such units during our previous visit to these areas. No relaxation would be given to defaulters,” he said.
He claimed that lot of people living i n Prem Nagar and Mundka are suffering from respiratory problems and other ailments due to uncontrolled burning of plastic.
In a circular issued by the north corporation commissioner on Thursday, it was clarified that intensive sealing measure will be taken on Friday and the progress on sealing action will be reviewed by the EPCA chairman .
In 2017, the EPCA had ordered Delhi government to take action against industrial units running in non-conforming areas.
Later, in June 2018, the Delhi State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) had shared a list of 51,837 industries with the three municipal corporations, most of which were operating illegally from non-conforming and residential areas, despite having been provided alternate plots.
On the basis of this list, the north corporation had sealed over 600 factories and warehouses running illegally in residential areas in Mundka, Kamruddin Nagar, Nilothi, Swarn Park and Tikri Kalan.
During a meeting of the north corporation on Thursday, it was clarified that 48 hours notices are served for misusing residential unit for commercial purposes. “But in this case, the polluting factories are being run in residential areas, which are illegal,” said a senior official.
“On Thursday, a decision was taken to review the list of 51,000 units again considering some of them have been shut down or shifted to the 22 deemed industrial areas,” said an official.
The sealing issue was also discussed in the north corporation standing committee meeting on Thursday and councillors asked the commissioner to simplify the process for temporary de-sealing of premises.