Ghaziabad: Residents protest dumping of solid waste at Galand

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation (GMC) is facing opposition from residents of Hapur’s Galand and nearby areas against dumping of solid waste at a site in the village

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation (GMC) is facing opposition from residents of Hapur’s Galand and nearby areas against dumping of solid waste at a site in the village. The villagers said that they will not allow solid waste dumping at the site proposed for construction of waste-to-energy plant for safe and scientific disposal of solid waste in Ghaziabad.

Residents of Galand village protest against a garbage dumping ground in the village on Sunday. (Sakib Ali/HT)

The villagers on Saturday stopped GMC vehicles which arrived with truckloads of solid waste, and drove those away.

According to GMC officials, the 45-acre site comes under the jurisdiction of the corporation, but “physical possession” of the site is still with the farmers.

In 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government had given the project of developing a waste-to-energy plant at Galand to a Netherlands company, but the project is yet to take off.

“People from Galand and nearby villages of Masuri, Nahal, Piplehda, and Dabarsi will continue the protest, if the solid waste is dumped at the site. If the corporation wishes to develop anything else, we will not protest. The site is close to our Abadi land and also nearby schools,” said Sanjay Khori, village head, Galand.

“We want a peaceful solution to this problem, and we will not hesitate to take legal recourse if our voices are not heard,” Khori added.

The GMC moved to the site at Galand after it faced opposition to dumping activities at a site in Raj Nagar Extension (RNE), where the residents have been protesting the move for almost two years.

“Solid waste is being dumped at several places in Raj Nagar Extension. The activities have led to unhygienic conditions in the area, and the RNE residents will continue to oppose this... We have also moved a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last week, and it got registered. After it is admitted, we will continue our legal battle against the activities of the corporation,” said Vikrant Sharma, a lawyer and resident of RNE.

In September this year, the GMC decided to move the dumping of solid waste from RNE to Galand. The officials said that the daily solid waste -- about 200 metric tonnes -- from Kavi Nagar and Vijay Nagar zones was taken to RNE, but the residents objected to the activity.

“Now, the Galand residents are also opposing this activity. The 45-acre land belongs to the corporation, but at present the site has no boundary wall. The farmers, who have not given physical possession of the land yet, still use it for agricultural purposes... One of our garbage processing factories at Ret Mandi in Nandgram will be operational in October this year. Arrangements will be made to take solid waste to the site for processing... We will seek help from the administration in getting the issue resolved at the earliest,” said Mithilesh Kumar, city health officer of GMC.

GMC commissioner MS Tanwar could not be reached for comments on Sunday.

The city generates nearly 1,200 metric tonnes of solid waste daily.

In January 2019, the NGT-appointed UP solid waste monitoring committee had banned dumping of solid waste at the city’s only major landfill site at Pratap VIhar. According to the officials, the Pratap Vihar landfill site consists of nearly 4.5 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste, and further dumping is banned. They estimated that the ongoing bio-remediation activity at the Pratap Vihar site is likely to be completed by March 2022.