Sukhdev Vihar residents knock on Kejriwal’s door over Okhla plant

The CPCB has also told the National Green Tribunal that emission from the waste-to-energy plant in Okhla were well within the limits set under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.

Sukhdev Vihar residents have written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal demanding removal of the Okhla waste-to-energy plant operator and transforming the space into a community park.

The CPCB has also told the National Green Tribunal that emission from the waste-to-energy plant in Okhla were well within the limits set under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. (Representative photo)

“We ask you to ensure that the plant operator immediately vacates the green area and it be restored its intended use of a community park or other green activity,” the letter to Kejriwal, a copy of which is with HT, says.

Residents claim that according to the Delhi master plan, this area falls on the green belt.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, however, the land, which belongs to the Delhi Development Authority, was given on lease to the New Delhi Municipal Council to establish a sewage treatment plant to treat waste collected from Rashtrapati Bhawan.

The CPCB has also told the National Green Tribunal that emission from the waste-to-energy plant in Okhla were well within the limits set under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.

The tribunal has been hearing a petition filed by the Sukhdev Vihar Residents Welfare Association, demanding the closure of a waste-to-energy plant, alleging that it uses illegal mass burning technology, which causes air pollution.

Earlier, the National Green Tribunal had on December 2 constituted a joint inspection team comprising member secretaries of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), a senior scientist of the Ministry of Environment and Forests along with an IIT Delhi professor, to be nominated by the IIT director, asking it to file its report within six weeks and supervise and visit the waste-to-energy plants in the city once in two months.

In an earlier hearing, the tribunal had summoned the Delhi Pollution Control Committee officials, who had given a “consent to operate” certificate to the Okhla plant in 2011.