Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad district magistrate Thursday took a stern view of the rising incidents of garbage and waste burning in Ghaziabad and directed officials to file FIRs against offenders.
The directions came after the fire department officials revealed that of about 800 fire incidents reported since January 1 till October 10, about 245, or about 30%, were related to burning of garbage and waste.
The pollution levels in Ghaziabad are on the higher side with Loni on Thursday recording an air quality index (AQI) of 315, in the higher limits of ‘very poor’ category, according the Central Pollution Control Board.
It was the second most polluted spot, after Sirsa, among 108 cities. The Ghaziabad city recorded an AQI of 298 on Thursday, on a scale of 0 to 500, with 0 being the least polluted and 500+ the most severe. Any reading between 301 and 400 is considered ‘very poor’.
“We are seeing a lot of garbage and waste burning across the city and it is time that we file FIRs against offenders. I have directed FIRs to be filed against officials of land owning agencies as well as against private owners if incidents of waste or garbage burning are reported from their land. The FIRs will be filed under the IPC sections,” Dr Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, said.
“Further, directions have been issued to all SHOs through the senior superintendent of police that the respective SHOs will be held responsible if there is any incident of garbage or waste burning under his/her police station. The patrolling vehicles are required to inform the administration or pollution board officials if they come across such incident,” Pandey said.
{{/usCountry}}“Further, directions have been issued to all SHOs through the senior superintendent of police that the respective SHOs will be held responsible if there is any incident of garbage or waste burning under his/her police station. The patrolling vehicles are required to inform the administration or pollution board officials if they come across such incident,” Pandey said.
{{/usCountry}}The officials of the fire department said about 30% of fire incidents since January have been related to those of garbage or waste burning.
“The incidents have taken place at landfill sites in Indirapuram, Pratap Vihar, behind Mahamaya stadium, besides Loni. Our fire tenders responded promptly to these calls. The time and resources devoted to attending such fires are wasted and could be put to much better use in case of a fire in a high-rise,” Sunil Kumar Singh, chief fire officer, said.
The district fire department has five stations in Ghaziabad district. According to records, 65 fire calls were attended to during the 10 months of 2019 by Kotwali fire station, while 62 such calls were attended by Loni fire station during the same period.
The Sahibabad, Vaishali and Modinagar fire stations attended to 46, 45 and 27 calls, respectively, of waste burning.
The district magistrate further said all vigilance teams formed to tackle pollution will also lodge FIRs besides fining offenders.
“The fines alone are not getting us the desired results. The fire department is to remain alert. On Wednesday night, we had about five incidents of garbage burning,” Pandey said.