Plea in green tribunal against dumping in Hindon

An environment activist has approached the National Green Tribunal and filed a petition against several agencies for allegedly dumping soil on the river Hindon floodplains. The plea has also sought the removal of an under-construction electricity substation near the river at Karhera.

An environment activist has approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and filed a petition against several agencies for allegedly dumping soil on the river Hindon floodplains.

Petition was filed against GDA, UP irrigation department, electricity department and the DMRC for allowing the alleged dumping of soil in the river zone, obstructing its flow. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The plea has also sought the removal of an under-construction electricity substation near the river at Karhera.

City resident Vikrant Sharma filed the petition against Ghaziabad development authority, UP irrigation department, electricity department and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for allowing the alleged dumping of soil in the river zone, obstructing its flow.

“The petition came up for listing on Friday. We have requested the court for removal of dumped material, formulation of guidelines over dumping and also the removal of an under-construction electricity substation near the river at Karhera,” said Dipesh Chaudhary, Sharma’s advocate.

HT had recently highlighted the dumping of soil under the Hindon river bridge on the GT Road by the DMRC, which is constructing pillars for a 9.41km metro route in Ghaziabad.

Later, the DMRC removed some of the dumped soil.

Further, the GDA had also dumped a considerable quantity of soil on the river zone near Raj Nagar Extension for the construction of its 10.3km Hindon elevated road project.

Both the GDA and the DMRC had maintained that dumping was required for construction purposes and claimed that it was a temporary arrangement and the soil will be removed.

A petition about river Hindon is already being heard by NGT. In an interim direction, the NGT on September 1, 2015, had issued certain directions to the officials of GDA, Ghaziabad municipal corporation and district magistrate.

The other issue that the petition highlighted was the construction of 220KV transmission substation at Karhera. The substation is constructed close to the present course of the river. HT, in January, had highlighted the issue of the under-construction substation which is meant to supply power to Raj Nagar Extension.

In a May 2013 order on a different petition, the NGT had come down heavily on different agencies and passed an interim direction, restraining any illegal and unauthorised construction, temporary or permanent, on the floodplain zone of river Yamuna in the NCT of Delhi, state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

The tribunal had also specified that a similar order shall operate with regard to river Hindon as well.

“We registered complaints with various departments but they did not offer any solution. So we approached the NGT. The dumping is obstructing the river’s free flow and the substation is constructed too close to the river zone,” Sharma said.