Ghaziabad: In a bid to curb pollution in the district, the administration has directed authorities to identify people involved in violation of norms and display their names, along with address, on a board at all the government offices.
The district magistrate, Ajay Shankar Pandey, has rolled out the concept of naming and shaming erring persons as “Paryavaran Ke Shatru” (enemy of environment). An initial list of several persons allegedly involved in burning of garbage and stubble was put up at district headquarters on Sunday.
“After sending several messages and awareness about stoppage of garbage and stubble burning, some people are still engaged in burning activities. We have asked for imposition of penalty and also FIRs against such persons. A list will be similarly put up at every tehsil, block level offices, zonal offices of municipal corporation and also at the offices of the Ghaziabad Development Authority,” Pandey said.
The DM has written to administrative offices and different agencies to hold meetings with Gram Pradhans and councillors in order to stop burning of garbage and stubble in their respective areas. “A substantial penalty has been levied upon in number of instances of violation of environment norms. I have also directed that officials concerned will also be held accountable if violations persist in their areas,” he said.
Ghaziabad has been facing high pollution levels for the past several days. However, on Sunday, wind speed brought respite to the residents as the pollution levels came down with dispersal of pollutants in the city. The air quality index (AQI) for Ghaziabad on Sunday stood under ‘poor’ category at 218. The last time the city recorded ‘poor’ air quality was on November 6 when the AQI value was 294.
{{/usCountry}}Ghaziabad has been facing high pollution levels for the past several days. However, on Sunday, wind speed brought respite to the residents as the pollution levels came down with dispersal of pollutants in the city. The air quality index (AQI) for Ghaziabad on Sunday stood under ‘poor’ category at 218. The last time the city recorded ‘poor’ air quality was on November 6 when the AQI value was 294.
{{/usCountry}}The UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), along with different agencies in Ghaziabad district, have levied a penalty of about ₹9 crore this season after the enhanced measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) were initiated from October 15.
The district magistrate said that all efforts to recover the penalties would be taken up and in case the recoveries are not made he will direct for issuance of recovery certificates against the erring persons.
A report by Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space Laboratory — a Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi — has found that the number of instances of stubble burning from November 11 to November 16 stood at 1,428, 251 and 675 in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
According to the report, the number of stubble burning instances from October 1 to November 16 stood at 16 and 12 for Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad, respectively.