Gurugram: Secretary says DG sets to go by March 31, but administration not clear about deadline

GURUGRAM: Despite EPCA order on the ban of diesel generators in the national capital region, the government agencies are completely unclear and uncoordinated about the decommissioning of the DG sets.
While the minutes of meetings published for GMDA’s last authority meeting mention March 31, 2020 as the deadline, the pollution control board, the district administration and other government agencies are unaware of any such deadline.

The published minutes of the meeting accessed by TOI states, “Dheera Khandelwal, additional chief secretary, environment, Haryana, stated that as per the direction of the Supreme Court, the DG sets are to be decommissioned by March 31.” However, Khandelwal did not answer multiple calls and messages sent to her about the same.
Deputy commissioner of Gurugram Amit Khatri, said that the process for the de-commissioning was indeed underway but it was being handled by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB).
“Most probably, the March deadline was set by EPCA,” he said
However, regional officer of HSPCB, Kuldeep Singh, said that they are not aware of any deadline for the phasing out of the diesel gensets, which electrify many societies in the new sectors.
Meanwhile, multiple GMDA officials said that the matter had been discussed at the meeting but since it is not in GMDA jurisdiction, they could not comment. “The deadline of March 31 is the one allotted by the Supreme Court for the ban,” said a senior GMDA official. Many confessed that the deadline was unrealistic.
“It is not possible for us to phase out all the DG sets by this month-end. How will we provide power to so many societies that are not yet connected by power lines,” asked another senior GMDA official.
The EPCA had said in January that all the DG sets will be banned in the NCR cities of Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad.
“We will not allow anyone to use diesel generator. We need to work with the authorities and industries department to decide a plan of action to implement this ban,” EPCA chairman Bhure Lal had said back then. According to a recent report published by the Centre for Science and Environment, there are around 10,500 DG sets in Gurugram.