Closure notice to 41 units in Mayapuri

NEW DELHI: The sealing drive is likely to return to Mayapuri. After completing a comprehensive unit-wise survey in Phase-II of Mayapuri Industrial Area, the Special Task Force for sealing has issued closure notices to 41 units. Many of these polluting units were found to be operating with expired “consent to operate” permits.
Senior officials said this is the first phase of notices given in one block. In the last one month, several hundred units were checked in a door-to-door survey in Phase-II blocks A, C, D1, G1 and E. Delhi Police also carried out a sensitisation meeting with traders on Wednesday to avoid a law and order problem.
The units issued notices have been carrying out activities like printing, washing jeans, repair of generators, manufacturing paint, denting and painting of car doors/bumpers, manufacturing electrical panels, among others.
RK Gupta, the president of the local traders’ association, said that scrap units have already been cleared and now the agencies are focusing on industrial units. “The traders are being told to close their factories within 24 hours, which is not practically possible. Why can’t more time be given to units that have applied for new permits or whose permits have expired in the last fortnight?” he argued. Traders also approached Delhi high court on Thursday for getting interim relief.
Earlier in April, Mayapuri had witnessed large-scale violence in which 30 people got injured when Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) teams had come to seal the scrap units. DPCC had issued notices to 765 units that were not following the norms, but only six could be sealed as the situation grew out of control. The high court provided relief to scrap traders by staying punitive action.