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Gurugram’s civic agencies pulled up for deteriorating air
Gurugram Facing flak for its lackadaisical approach in dealing with the deteriorating air quality in the city, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB)
Gurugram Facing flak for its lackadaisical approach in dealing with the deteriorating air quality in the city, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) on Tuesday issued a notice to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) for their failure to comply with environmental norms in disposing of solid, plastic and construction waste, leading to open burning of garbage.
“Due to the failure of the civic agencies in implementing the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) mandated by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca), the air quality of the city has deteriorated. The state is facing adverse remarks from the Supreme Court, high court, National Green Tribunal (NGT), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Epca and the Central ministry,” said Kuldeep Singh, regional officer, HSPCB.
He said that several incidents of waste burning have been taking place due to the improper disposal of waste. The pollution board has identified 36 cases of waste burning in the city since October 15, when the Grap came into force.
With pressure building from the state and the Central governments to address the issue of poor air quality index (AQI), HSPCB officials inspected various sites in the city, along with Ashok Sangwan, the divisional commissioner, on Monday and Tuesday. Also, the inspection was planned, considering a visit by Dr Bhure Lal, chairman, Epca, in the near future.
The team visited the Leisure Valley Park and garbage collection centre in Sector 29, old jail complex near Shivaji Nagar and the auto market plot, near Sector 10. Based on the inspection conducted, teams found a complete violation of environmental norms in segregation and disposal of solid, plastic and construction waste.
Most of these areas fall under the jurisdiction of MCG, barring the old jail complex and auto market plot in Sector 10, which fall under the HSVP. As per the report, the situation was worst in sectors 16 and 47, on bus stand road, the area adjacent to the service road from Jharsa Chowk to 32nd milestone from the Jaipur to Delhi side.
Singh said that last month too, a show cause notice was issued to the MCG for its failure to comply with the Grap. Senior MCG officials, however, claim they have been making efforts to streamline the waste disposal and prevent garbage burning.
A senior MCG official, who did not want to be named, said, “We are taking necessary actions to improve the door-to-door collection, segregation and disposal of waste. We are trying to push the agency hired for waste management in the city. As per the contract with the agency, we are to pay ₹1,000/tonne of the garbage, but knowing there are flaws in their functioning, we are paying ₹670/tonne. We are almost deducting one-third of the payment to create pressure and streamline the process. Simultaneously, we also penalising those violating the norms.”
HSVP’s Gurugram administrator, Chander Shekhar Khare, was not available for comment.
