Mob demolishes boundary wall of waste-to-energy plant in Galand

The villagers of Galand and neighbouring villages have been protesting against the construction of the plant in their area and demanding that it be set up elsewhere

A mob of hundreds of unidentified men and women on Wednesday barged into the waste-to-energy plant in Galand in Hapur district and demolished the newly constructed boundary wall of the site, which is being developed by the Ghaziabad municipal corporation for processing solid waste from the city. The work on the plant is expected to commence next year.

The 44.26 acres, where the waste-to-energy plant is to come up, belongs to the corporation. Two days ago, it started the construction of the boundary wall to secure the site (Sakib Ali/HT photo)

The villagers of Galand and neighbouring villages have been protesting against the construction of the plant in their area and demanding that it be set up elsewhere. However, the 44.26 acres, where the site is to come up, belongs to the corporation and two days ago, it started the construction of the boundary wall to secure the site.

“About 250 people demolished the boundary wall on Wednesday morning and also misbehaved with officials. The entire length of the wall is about 2,300 metres and the per metre cost is about ₹2,000. So, the cost involved will be realised from the erring persons and we are in touch with officials in Hapur. An FIR will also be registered in this connection,” said MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner.

The villagers of Galand have been staging a sit-in protest for past two months near the site and said the plant will lead to unhygienic conditions in their villages and also pose a health hazard.

“On Wednesday morning, hundreds of agitated locals arrived and demolished the boundary wall which is getting constructed by the corporation. People are agitated over the developments leading to construction of the plant. Our protest will continue and our sit-in will also continue till the time officials decide to shift the plant to another location,” said Sanjay Khori, gram pradhan (village head) of Galand.

“We know that officials will lodge FIRs in this connection but we will continue with the protest for our demand to shift the plant to some other site,” he added.

The plant is expected to process about 2,500 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and generate electricity that will be transferred to the electricity department.

At present, the Ghaziabad city has no landfill site available for processing daily solid waste of about 1,200 metric tonnes. The officials of the corporation have already admitted that about 700 metric tonnes of daily solid waste fail to get processed.