Noida: Garbage burning continues even as city suffers ‘severe’ air quality

Noida: Even as Noida has been suffering ‘sever’ air quality for the past five days, garbage burning continues unabated in the city. On Tuesday, residents of Bahlolpur

Noida: Even as Noida has been suffering ‘sever’ air quality for the past five days, garbage burning continues unabated in the city. On Tuesday, residents of Bahlolpur village in Sector 63 complained of a huge waste fire allegedly lit by some miscreants.

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Stating that scrap dealers often dump garbage in their area, especially near the Bahlolpur underpass in Sector 63 along the FNG road, the residents complained that garbage is often set afire there.

“Garbage is dumped along the roadsides or in open areas and set afire at least twice a week. Though waste is picked regularly, the dumping is random, especially by rag pickers and scrap dealers who get it from neighbouring factories and dump it here. We are used to feeling uneasy due to the smoke. We have been complaining about the same over Twitter and WhatsApp group, but the incidents persist,” said Sonu Yadav, vice-president of Bahlolpur RWA, Sector 63.

The residents said that the underpass, which connects Sector 63 with the FNG road, is under construction and leads to a lot of dust due to heavy traffic, and incidents of garbage burning only add to the pollution.

“On Tuesday, some people set a huge pile of garbage on fire near Radha Krishna Temple in Sector 63. We complained a few officers and later doused the fire by soiling it. This has become a common phenomenon,” said Sundar Yadav, a resident of Bahlolpur.

“The issue needs to be resolved as the area is not a dump yard. But it has become a common practice to dump and burn garbage here,” said Naresh Singh, another resident.

Garbage dumping and setting it afire had been an issue often reported by residents from other parts of the city too. In the past, complaints of waste burning have been reported from different residential areas, including sectors 123, 77, 51 and 54.

Officials at the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) said they will look into the matter.

“We will look into it and act accordingly. Garbage should not be dumped openly, and we have several times asked the authorities concerned to ensure that garbage or dry waste is regularly picked up from such open areas. Earlier as well, such cases of open burning had been reported and we had rushed fire tenders to douse them off,” said Praveen Kumar, regional officer, UPPCB, Noida.

Officials of the Noida authority could not be contacted despite several attempts.