New Delhi: After a series surprise inspections by the Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain of Aam Aadmi Party, South Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated inspections of their own. The construction of a tunnel at a redevelopment project site in Pragati Maidan has been halted and a school in south Delhi was fined Rs. 5 lakh for “violating” National Green Tribunal (NGT) norms on curbing pollution, the area’s civic body said Tuesday.
Don Bosco School in Sukhdev Vihar has been fined Rs. 5 lakh for violation of NGT norms. The fine has been imposed under section 337 of the DMC Act read with section 15 of NGT Act, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said in a statement. The violations observed over a plot of 20,000 sqm belonging to the school were “serious”, it said.
SDMC Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel on Tuesday chaired a meeting of heads of various departments to take stock of the present pollution situation. He directed the zonal departments to immediately stop ongoing construction work as Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and NGT have instructed the suspension of construction work.
The construction of a tunnel by an infrastructure major at the Pragati Maidan project site has been “stopped”, the SDMC statement read.
According to Radha Krishnan, Director, Press and Information, SDMC, The action has been taken under section 344 (2) of the DMC Act after carrying out an inspection of the site where dust was found to be generated despite a letter of warning being issued earlier.
It was also observed that no action was taken to prevent dust generation at the project site at Pragati Maidan and the condition was helping in further worsening the quality of air, Mr. Krishnan said.
At the school, the violations included construction material stored not covered, dust emission, workers at construction site not provided masks and no wind breaking walls around construction site, the SDMC said.
Mr. Goel also instructed the zonal deputy commissioners to identify 500 sites per zone for bursting crackers during Diwali night between 8 pm and 10 pm as per instructions of the Supreme Court.
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SDMC has announced that patrolling and surprise inspections will continue until air pollution in the national capital comes under control. Five teams of six members each have been constituted in each zone.
Mr. Hussain recently visited an under construction underpass in South Delhi’s Mahipalpur area where he witnessed clear violations of pollution control norms and ordered strict action against the contractor and imposed a fine of Rs. 5 lakh for failure to contain dust during construction.
On Monday, Mr. Hussain went on a surprise inspection at construction sites in B-block Industrial Area in Wazirpur, in South Delhi and saw instances of industrial waste burning at Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land.
Apart from imposing a fine of Rs. 5 Lakhs, Mr Hussain enquired about rampant dumping and burning of waste on a DDA land and asked Environment Marshals to be deployed, to keep a check on open burning of waste.
As per the National Green Tribunal (NGT) rules, violators are being imposed with a fine of Rs. 5,00,000 apart from intercepting the incidents and warning the offenders.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
