Garbage disposal stopped at the Sector 123 site. (Express photo/Praveen Khanna)
After a 20-day-long protest by residents over the construction of a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Sector 123, garbage disposal at the site was stopped on Friday. The Noida Authority, meanwhile, is looking for an alternate location for the project.
Officials said the move follows directions from UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s office, shortly after a delegation of protesters placed their concerns before him.
“Dumping of garbage at the site has stopped today. We are looking for a new site for the proposed solid waste management project. However, this is likely to be a temporary measure since the National Green Tribunal had ordered the construction of a WTE plant at the site, and the plot had also been demarcated for the purpose in the master plan,” said a senior Noida Authority official.
Protesters had raised health and environment concerns over the setting up of a WTE plant near their residential colonies.
The protest had turned violent earlier this month, with stones being pelted at police teams near the site. Eighty residents were arrested on June 4.
Residents, however, had refused to bow down to the administration and the NGT order. On International Yoga Day on Thursday, they had also observed “kooda yoga” to draw the government’s attention to their woes.
On May 29, an NGT bench had issued an order on a petition filed by a section of residents of Noida’s sectors 22, 33, 53, 55 and 56. The case related to the dumping of waste in another part of the city — Sector 54. In its order, the NGT said that it had held detailed discussions on the “fact that Sector-123, NOIDA, was a designated site for Municipal Solid Waste Management as per the Master Plan prepared.”
It added that the Noida Authority shall “handle municipal solid waste in Sector 123, as was directed by our order dated October 24, 2017… The WTE Plant shall be commissioned at the earliest possible, but not later than six months.”
The NGT also asked the Authority to create a pit at Sector 123. “If there is any resistance, the same shall be removed by law-enforcing Authority… In this regard, officers of Respondent No. 6 (Noida Authority) will be entitled to have police assistance,” the order stated.