No check on waste burning in Ghaziabad even as AQI hits ‘very poor’ mark

GHAZIABAD: The Air Quality Index of Ghaziabad on Wednesday was recorded at 339 which comes under ‘very poor’ category. As per SAMEER app of ministry of environment, forest and climate change in the list of 105 cities in the country there are 10 cities whose AQI have been in the ‘very poor’ range on Wednesday with Ghaziabad at 339 AQI being second most polluted city in the country after Panipat, AQI of which was recorded at 340.
As per Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) directions, the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) comes into effect in case AQI hovers between ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ category, which obviously means that GRAP has very much come into effect in the city that should ideally have prompted UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and district administration to come up with a slew of measures to check air pollution and that is what administration is claiming. However, reality is far from it.
A patch of land near between Hindon canal road and Pustha road that connects Indirapuram is littered by tons of waste, which have been set on fire and smoke is billowing from it for ten days continuously now and yet no government departments or agencies have taken note of it.
Ishwari Prasad who runs a kiosk on the stretch says “for the last ten days or so smoke is billowing from the spot and even though my kiosk is about 50 m it has left us with an uneasy feeling.” When asked who is dumping waste at the spot and setting it on fire, Ishwari says “in the middle of night we could hear dumpers coming to the spot and leaves after emptying tons of waste at the spot.”
The area is not very populous and barring some farm houses and wedding halls there are open fields which makes easy for voters to dump waste here who set it on fire to make space for more dumping.
Meanwhile, at Indirapuram polluting monitoring station, the AQI of Wednesday was recorded at 320 which comes under ‘Very Poor’ category.
The district administration and pollution control department in last few weeks had claimed that it had taken measures to control air pollution. Three night vigil crack teams were constituted to look for garbage burning and industrial pollution. The district administration has also constituted teams to check for any violations but it seems all measures have fallen short.
When the issue was brought to the notice of district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey he said that he would be deploying a team to nab the violators. “I will personally look into the matter and will be deploying a team to nab the violators” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.