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Hospitals paid maximum penalty for pollution in Delhi, construction sector next
The DPCC’s report has been submitted to the National Green Tribunal in June this year.
Hospitals and nursing homes have paid the highest ‘environment compensation’ for polluting Delhi’s environment in the last five years, a report prepared by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has revealed.
“The DPCC collected around ₹31 crore as environment compensation between 2015 and 2019 (till June), and at least ₹15 crore came from hospitals and nursing homes. Next in the list polluters is the construction and demolition sector from which we collected ₹7.7 crore during the same period as compensation,” a senior official of the DPCC said.
The DPCC’s report has been submitted to the National Green Tribunal in June this year.
Environment Compensation is collected on the basis of ‘polluter pays’ principle for environment pollution. As for health care facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and clinics, the EC is imposed if they are operating without authorisation of the DPCC or if they are found mishandling biomedical waste and not sending it to separate treatment facilities in Delhi.
“The DPCC had sent notices to more than 3,200 health care facilities. Till June 26, at least 12 hospitals and nursing homes were asked to shut. Another 23 health care facilities (without beds) have been asked to shut as well,” the official said.
The construction and demolition sector was deemed the worst violator of green norms by the 52 centre-state joint teams which were deployed during last winter to flag violations and impose spot penalties.
“While on one hand, environment marshals deployed by the DPCC had been keeping a check and flagging violations such as construction material kept in the open and illegal dumping of C&D waste, the DPCC also received several complaints on social media, through calls and on apps. Penalties have been imposed on all defaulters,” a senior official of the environment department said.
Even though Delhi produces around 3,900 tonnes of construction and demolition waste, the installed capacity to treat C&D waste in the national capital is only around 2,650 tonnes. A large portion of this waste is dumped illegally on the floodplains and roadsides.
“As construction and road dust are among the biggest contributors to Delhi’s air pollution, particularly during the summer months, a check on construction activities would help bring down pollution. Imposing environment compensation acts as a deterrent,” D Saha, former head of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’s air quality laboratory, said.
The civic agencies have been asked to identify sites where C&D waste could be dumped so that it can be collected and taken to recycling plants. Municipal corporations have already started night inspections to stop illegal dumping of C&D waste, and also plan to install CCTV at identified spots where such waste is illegally dumped.
“We have asked all government agencies in Delhi and NCR to implement the mitigation measures stringently and ensure strict ground level action. A lot of complaints are regularly being lodged on social media. The response of government agencies is highly inadequate,” a CPCB official said.
