Gurgaon: Till 3pm on Friday, penalties to the tune of Rs 63,000 were imposed for flouting GRAP norms in 24 hours. This includes six challans amounting to Rs 13,000 for garbage burning and one challan of Rs 50,000 for biomass burning imposed on residents in the 24 hours since Thursday 3pm. Later on Friday, MCG officials also slapped a fine of Rs 75,000 on a builder in Zone 1 who had encroached upon the roads with building material and had not covered it.
A team led by joint commissioner 1 and 2 visited a few areas in Zone 1 and issued challans to three material suppliers who had left the building material uncovered on the roadside. “The construction projects that violate the environmental norms will be penalised to keep pollution under control. I have also issued directions to the senior sanitary inspector to keep roads clean and sprinkle water on the treesroads, and ensure that vehicles carrying municipal solid waste to Bandhwari are covered,” said Jitender Kumar, joint commissioner 1 and 2, MCG.
In the Udyog Vihar hotspot area, three challans and a fine of Rs 1,500 was issued for garbage dumping in the last 24 hours. Water was sprinkled in 32 stretches across the city. These included Hero Honda Chowk to Basai village on both sides, SPR Road (NH 8) up to Vatika Chowk, Rajiv chowk to Vatika Chowk via Islampur, Atul Kataria chowk to Krishna Chowk both sides, MG road bus stand to Iffco chowk. Moreover, mechanical sweeping of roads was done for which 10 sweeping machines were deployed by the MCG.
MCG has created an ‘air lab’, which is the command and control centre for tackling air pollution. The lab is monitoring all the activities to be undertaken under GRAP, ensuring timely resolution of complaints related to air pollution, tracking AQI at various locations, and collecting and analysing data related to air pollution. With the implementation of GRAP, MCG is authorised to issue challans and lodge FIR against those construction projects violating environmental norms, issue challans on building material suppliers for non-coverage of material on road sides and transporting of building material without properly covering it.