After the news that there has been a rise in cases of cancer in five villages around the Chhapraula Industrial Area in Greater Noida district of Uttar Pradesh due to groundwater contamination, a petition was filed on Wednesday before the National Green Tribunal seeking closure of all illegal industrial activities in the area.
The petition filed by the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) through its director Raj Hans Bansal says as per the provisions of the Water Act, no person shall permit any poisonous or polluting matter into any stream, well, sewer or land and, therefore, the parties made respondents in the case were duty bound to implement the said legal provisions.
CHR’s advocate Gaurav Bansal said the petitioner came to know about the menace through newspaper reports, which said due to the contaminated groundwater more than five villages (Sadopur, Achheja, Sadullapur, Bishnuli, Kheradharampur, Dujana, Vaidpur, Milak Lachchhi, Khedi Bhanota, etc.) of District Greater Noida are afflicting with cancer.
The organisation has pleaded the Central Pollution Control Boardand the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, Greater Noida Development Authority, District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar and the Senior Superintendent of Police of the area.
“...the applicant has also learnt that the groundwater in the said belt was sweet and of good quality till about 20 years ago, but the condition got deteriorated after the setting up of Chhapuraulla Industrial Area at Greater Noida,” the petition says, adding, “further the applicant has also learnt from the articles published in various newspapers that in the industrial zone there is no drain, which can carry the industrial effluents and this is one of the reasons the industries set up in the industrial zone are dumping effluents into the grounds through wells.”
The petitioner claimed that due to the drinking of contaminated water over the past five years, 100 lives have been lost and almost the same number is suffering from cancer.
