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GDA will fund environment management plan
Ghaziabad: The officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) Thursday said that they will approach the district administration for preparing the environment
Ghaziabad: The officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) Thursday said that they will approach the district administration for preparing the environment management plan (EMP), which is to be implemented on the directions of the National Green Tribunal.
A EMP for Kaushambi locality was ordered by the tribunal while issuing directions over a petition filed by Kaushambi apartments’ RWA (KARWA) in May 2016. The KARWA office bearers had moved tribunal in October 2015, contending that the locality was facing acute air, water and noise pollution.
“The tribunal directed the Ghaziabad agencies to prepare the EMP within six months. However, things got delayed and task of preparing an EMP for the entire Ghaziabad city was given to IIT-Roorkee. But the IIT’s draft proposal was rejected by the Ghaziabad district magistrate. We have already filed a contempt plea against this and the tribunal in May 2019 sought a status report from the divisional commissioner,” VK Mittal, president, KARWA, said.
In June, the then district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari also rejected a revised EMP submitted by IIT-Roorkee.
GDA vice-chairperson Kanchan Verma on Thursday said they have no expert agencies through which the plan can be prepared.
“We will request the administration to engage an expert agency so that the EMP can be prepared. On our part, we can fund the plan. The administration can engage the agency and draw up the plan,” Verma said.
The green tribunal had also directed the formation of a committee comprising officials from Central Pollution Control Board, UP Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. The committee visited Kaushambi and carried out extensive tests to ascertain the level of air, water and sound pollution and submitted a report before the tribunal.
The tribunal later directed the Ghaziabad administration to prepare the EMP for the entire Kaushambi locality. The task was assigned to GDA.
According to authority officials, IIT-Roorkee was engaged for a fee of ₹50 lakh and was paid about ₹11 lakh before the draft plan was rejected.
