As streams of hazardous chemicals and lubricants from service stations that have mushroomed across Delhi finally flow into Yamuna, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought to know if these stations have sources to deal with pollutants like oil and grease.
A Bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar turned its attention to the so-far unchecked pollutants comprising hazardous industrial chemicals that these service stations might be adding to the Yamuna.
It sought to know if at all the service stations have the permission to deal with such waste and if they have devices to handle such chemical waste.
While seeking complete details of the effluent treatment plants in industrial clusters in Delhi, the Bench ordered: “The complete details should also refer to the service stations which are apparently dealing/releasing hazardous waste. Whether they have the permission to deal with hazardous waste or not, and do they have in place sufficient anti-pollution devices that would handle even such hazardous waste, grease, oil etc. in to a non-pollutant.”
Meanwhile, the Tribunal directed all authorities, corporations, the Delhi Jal Board, Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (DSIIDC), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and all other authorities concerned to report to it on the status of the 11 industrial clusters, which are stated not to be connected to any common effluent treatment plant (CETP) and are discharging effluents into the drain.
The status report shall also project the proposed plan of the Department concerned to prevent and control the pollution. There are, at present, 28 industrial clusters in Delhi, of which only 17 have treatment plants. The Delhi government had in 2005 notified the clusters with 70 per cent or more concentration of industrial activity.
Under the re-development plan, the land owners or individual industries were to get their plans approved by the Municipal Corporations of Delhi. Under the settled norms, a minimum of 10 per cent of the total area is to be reserved for common infrastructure like CETP, sub-station, pump house, etc.
Despite the notification and the NGT order in January, the clusters were initially not pro-active in submitting the plan for redevelopment to local body for approval.
