Ghaziabad: Kaushambi RWAs move Supreme Court for pollution-free surroundings

Ghaziabad: The Kaushambi apartments’ residents’ welfare association (Karwa) has filed a petition at the Supreme Court with contention to plug different sources of

Ghaziabad: The Kaushambi apartments’ residents’ welfare association (Karwa) has filed a petition at the Supreme Court with contention to plug different sources of pollution affecting the township. While admitting the plea, the apex court on October 15 directed for issue of notice to respondents which include different Uttar Pradesh agencies and also some departments from Delhi.

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The township is located next to East Delhi’s Anand Vihar border under the jurisdiction of Ghaziabad district. It has about 22 high-rise societies with an estimated population of 20,000. The office bearers of Karwa said they have filed three petitions with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) since 2015 to make Kaushambi’s surroundings pollution-free.

“In these petitions, the tribunal gave various orders from time to time but the agencies have been lax in implementation. This is why we had to move the Supreme Court. Our township is affected by different sources of pollution and we have requested the court to provide remedy,” said VK Mittal, president of Karwa.

Ashapushp Vihar Awas Vkas Samiti Ltd, Kaushambi, is a co-petitioner in the case.

Mittal added that the initial petition with NGT was filed in September 2015 while the second petition was filed in August 2016 while a contempt application was filed in May 2019.

In their petition, Karwa has stated that nearby areas in east Delhi and localities in Ghaziabad including Kaushambi, Vaishali, Indirapuram and Vasundhara, etc are suffering from air, noise and waste pollution due to garbage dumps at Ghazipur and Kaushambi, besides traffic congestion at the Anand Vihar ISBT, a UP Roadways depot in Kaushambi, and drains in Sahibabad, among other sources.

They have contended before the apex court to direct agencies to prepare a detailed, workable and effective environmental protection plan to contain pollution in the township and surrounding areas with monitoring mechanisms of the implementation of a plan, and implementation thereof in a period of one year.

They have also contended for directions to prohibit diesel buses in the township as well as the use of pressure horns, besides proper parking for buses, autos, etc., and removal of encroachment by street vendors.

The list of 15 respondents also includes divisional commissioner (Meerut), the Ghaziabad district magistrate, UP pollution control board, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, and UP state road transport corporation (UPSRTC), among others.

When contacted, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey declined immediate comments on the issue, stating that the matter was sub-judice.

MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner and Utsav Sharma, the regional officer of the UPPCB, said that they will respond appropriately before the apex court once the notices are received.

The officials of the UPSRTC, however, said that they have banned the use of pressure horns in their buses and if any such horns are used, they are used by private buses.

“Out of about 530 buses operating from Ghaziabad, we have about 130 which have been converted to CNG while the rest are in different phases of conversion. However, they are using BS VI standard fuel. We have specially come up with a policy that buses which are more than 10-years-old are either transferred from here or sold in auctions,” said AK Singh, regional manager of UPSRTC.

“We have about 100 contractual buses in Ghaziabad and they have a contract of about 10 years. We have now made it a policy that any buses taken on contract will mandatorily use CNG fuel. So, buses whose contract gets over are required to rejoin the contract only if they come with CNG equipment,” he added.