The Hindu : New Delhi News : Startling revelations during sealing drive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Startling revelations during sealing drive

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHII, SEPT. 28. The sealing of "F" category of industries in various parts of Delhi has revealed facts about illegal activities going on within the four walls of these units. Not only were these industries polluting the atmosphere, they were also "illegally" using heavy duty generators and had dug up unauthorised bore-wells for exploitation of precious underground water resources in violation of the norms laid by the Central Groundwater Authority.

It was found that not only were the common citizens violating the law, but a large number of political heads also either had their own units or had leased out their premises for running the polluting units. It is learnt that a flying squad today sealed three such factories in premises rented out by the Delhi Assembly Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, at Lado Sarai. These included two units of fabrication and one oil and flour mill, both categorised as polluting units.

Sources said that in more than 50 per cent of the cases, bore-wells had been dug for drawing groundwater, which is an illegal act. Similarly, in total violation of the pollution norms, 65 KVA generators were being run in the factory premises illegally, leading to not only air pollution but also noise pollution. All the bore-wells as well as the generators have been seized and sealed by the flying squads.

Apart from this, the raiding teams have cut the power and water connections to these units as per the court orders.

The various teams of Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) that have swooped down on the post-1990 illegal units on the directions of the Supreme Court found to their astonishment that a large number of units had on their own downed their shutters and shifted out before officially being sealed. Interestingly, these units were shown as functioning during the survey and are understood to have shut down only recently after the crackdown began in the first week of September.

Another interesting fact revealed during this entire exercise is that contrary to the claims of the Delhi Government and the surveys conducted by it in the 24 residential areas, the percentage of industry concentration was much less than 70 per cent. This has exposed the tall claims of the Delhi Government that these 24 residential areas had more than 70 per cent industrial activity and therefore they should be declared industrial areas.

It is learnt that till now around 300 polluting units had been sealed in areas like Malviya Nagar, Kotla Mubarakpur, Mehrauli, Chattarpur, Begumpur, Savitri Nagar, INA, Wazirpur, Manglapuri, Okhla, Govindpuri, Badarpur, Tughlakabad, Kalkaji, East of Kailash and Chiragh Dilli. A majority of these units were dyeing and bleaching units involved in exports. More cases of sealing are likely in the next few days.

"The new survey is nothing but an attempt to mislead the courts and get relief for the violators of the law. The Government is trying to justify the wrong being done by these units and is itself working against the spirit of the National Capital Region (NCR) promotion," remarked a senior official.

The Delhi Government has been asked to file a status report by October 8 on what it had done to close down such polluting units whose number had been put at around 5,000 units in various parts of the Capital.

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