Noida: Villagers let authority dump waste in Sector 68 for 10 days

The Noida authority has been granted permission by villagers to dump municipal solid waste at the Sector 68 trench, near Transport Nagar, along the Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad (FNG) Expressway, for 10 days.

At a meeting held at the district magistrate’s (DM) camp office in Sector 27 on Tuesday evening, villagers said they will resume protests against the authority if it will continue to dump waste after 10 days.

Since April 9, the authority’s health department has stopped lifting solid waste because it has no landfill site in the city to dump or treat the waste.

The authority had to stop dumping solid waste at a temporary site in Sector 54 following residents’ protests.

Gautam Budh Nagar Member of Parliament and minister for state for environment, forest and climate change, Dr Mahesh Sharma, had also directed the authority not to dump in Sector 54, following residents’ protests.

However, the authority then stopped collecting waste from residential areas as there was no place to dump or treat the waste. This also raised health concerns across the city.

The authority had earlier tried to dump waste at the Sector 68 trench but residents of Garhi Choukhandi, Sarfabad, Sector 123 and other nearby areas did not allow the authority to do so.

In view of the garbage crisis the city is facing, Gautam Budh Nagar DM BN Singh called a meeting of villagers in his camp office on Tuesday evening. City magistrate Mahendra Singh, the Noida authority’s officer on special duty RK Singh and other officials met the villagers.

“We have asked the villagers to allow solid waste dumping for 10 days, within which the authority will look for a suitable space to dump the waste,” Singh said.

Noida authority’s chief executive officer (CEO), Alok Tandon, has written to East Delhi municipal corporation (EDMC), requesting it to allow dumping of Noida’s refuse-derived fuel at the Ghazipur landfill site.

The authority also has plans to develop a waste-to-energy plant at the Sector 123 landfill site, which is spread over 25 acres. However, residents are resistant to the idea.

“Officials put pressure on us and requested to dump waste for 10 days. We have told them that if they do not stop dumping of waste after 10 days, we will resume our agitation against illegal dumping of waste. Why did the Noida authority fail to identify a suitable place for the landfill site? Why is it troubling residents by dumping waste anywhere they find a place, even next to residential areas?” said Sukhbir Pehalwan of Sarfabad, who attended the meeting.