NGT directs AAP govt to shut down industries running in residential areas

NEW DELHI: The AAP government and the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMCD) must shut down unauthorised industrial units located in residential areas of Daryaganj, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Monday.

A bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore said the factories operating in residential areas cause air pollution and are extremely harmful to the people who are living in the surrounding areas. The green panel directed the municipal corporation to ensure that these factories do not operate till they obtain clearance from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

“In case the units have applied for clearance from the DPCC, they may be reopened, as and when the requisite clearances are given by the committee,” the bench said. “The DPCC shall decide on the application so received, for obtaining clearance, expeditiously and in no case later than four weeks... In case any application is pending before it, the same shall be immediately looked into and decided within the stipulated time.”

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Daryaganj resident Mohd Shariq seeking action against illegal factories in the area and demanding sealing of such units in non-conforming areas. The petitioner also sought directions to initiate criminal proceedings against those running such unauthorised units.

Shariq claimed that despite issuance of several letters by Public Grievances Commission of Delhi and Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has failed to stop operation of illegal factories.

Previously, the north civic body has sealed 85 gold-purifying factories in the jewellery hub of Karol Bagh in central Delhi for flouting pollution norms. These factories were said to be using concentrated nitric acid and discharging the waste water in drains.

In the biggest accidents involving illegal factories in Delhi since 2018, a two-storey ‘fan manufacturing’ factory collapsed in west Delhi’s Sudarshan Park on January 3 killing seven people. In May last year, a rubber godown in Malviya Nagar caught fire, the “highest category” blaze in Delhi since a 1983 year fire in Rajender Nagar’s Gopal Towers,” which required an IAF helicopter to pour water and extinguish.