Ragpickers, residents, hospitals protest govt’s plan to set up green power plants

India’s bid to earn money through waste-to-power projects faces opposition from people in Delhi. Residents are wary of the plants coming up near their doorsteps, and ragpickers say they will lose their only means of livelihood.

Updated on: Mar 24, 2011, 22:27:33 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India’s bid to earn money through waste-to-power projects faces opposition from people in Delhi. Residents are wary of the plants coming up near their doorsteps, and ragpickers say they will lose their only means of livelihood.

The Delhi government plans to set up three waste-to-energy projects in Okhla, Timparpur and Gazipur to generate 41 MW of power.

The projects are registered under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United National Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). This would enable the government to earn credits on the amount of carbon emission saved.

Conceptually, the projects look fine, but for over five lakh ragpickers in the city, it is a question of survival. “We earn R50 to R100 per day by collecting recyclable items from garbage disposal sites,” said Raju Rajasthani, a ragpicker at Bhalswa municipal dump in north Delhi. “If the entire lot of garbage is treated at plants, we will become redundant,” he added.

Some of them had taken the protest to a meeting of 195 countries under UNFCCC in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010. They argued that unless a part of the money earned through CDM is provided for their welfare, any type of waste-to-energy projects should not be considered. They have also launched a national campaign against waste-to-energy projects.

Residents of Okhla, Jamia Nagar, Ghaffar Manzil, Abul Fazl Enclave and Noor Nagar support the ragpickers, but for a different reason: they are protesting against the location of the proposed Okhla plant since it is close to their homes, rather than the concept. “The plant will ruin the environment near our houses,” said Jamia Nagar resident KS Ahmed. Even hospitals in the area — Apollo, Holy Family and Fortis Escorts — support the protest.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to look into the issues raised by people. “I am not against the concept of waste-to-energy projects. But if people are protesting, they should be discussed properly,” Ramesh said. A white paper by the ministry says the plants will emit toxic substances, which may harm the public.

The first waste-to-energy project may be commissioned in June this year. The remaining two will be completed in two years. “People’s concerns are being heard but some NGOs are trying to create problems,” said a Municipal Corporation of Delhi officer, who is involved in the projects. “Waste-to-energy plants will help us keep the city cleaner,” said a Delhi government official.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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