NGT notice to Haryana, 21 units in Sonepat

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, September 25

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice to the Haryana government and 21 industrial units in and around Ferozpur Banger village in Sonepat district on a petition seeking the closure of polluting units.

The Principal Bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar passed the order on the plea by the Ferozpur Welfare Society, contending that the village and its surroundings had become a dumping ground for chemical waste due to the mushrooming of unauthorised factories handling ‘katha,’ dye, pyrolysis oil, tyre ingredients and other hazardous chemicals.

These units were throwing their waste directly into agriculture fields and drains posing serious health problems to the villagers, advocate Preeti Singh pleaded while arguing for the society.

The NGT has also sought response from various departments of the state government such as health, environment and the pollution control board, besides the district administration and the police.

Residents of the area were suffering from various ailments as a result of consuming contaminated water and inhaling polluted air while vegetable and other farm produce in the area had also become poisonous, the society pleaded.

Representations made to the authorities had gone unheeded, forcing the society to approach the NGT, the petitioner said.

Bijendra Ahlawat, TNS

Environment activists move NGT to check damage to Aravallis

Faridabad: Environment activists and their NGOs have filed a petition before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) calling for a check on the alleged damage to the Aravalli forest in Faridabad and Gurgaon districts. They alleged the authorities concerned, including the local and civic agencies of both cities, had failed to safeguard the forest and demanded a ban on all commercial and dumping activities in the Aravalli belt. Jitender Bhadana of Save Aravalli, an NGO working on ecology, said the petition was filed on Tuesday. “The NGT has fixed September 28 as the first date of hearing,” he said. The decision to seek the NGT intervention, Bhadana said, was taken at a meeting of an informal syndicate that was formed recently and comprised social and environmental activists of the region. It demanded implementation of a framework to check what it called “irreversible destruction” of fragile ecosystems triggered due to environment violations at the behest of government agencies. “The Faridabad-Gurgaon and Gurgaon-Delhi roads have not only emerged as a prominent real estate destinations, but also been used to dump harmful waste,” Bhadana said, adding that a 30-acre waste dumping site in Faridabad’s Bandhwari village and the move to set up another recycling plant in the region led to resentment among locals. In the petition, the activists alleged violation of rules and regulations and charged civic bodies of Faridabad and Gurgaon with disposing of waste in the open, resulting in pollution, and posing a threat to plants and wildlife. “All requests and appeals to the authorities concerned, including the state government, pollution control board and Municipal Corporations of Faridabad and Gurgaon, have gone unheard, prompting us to approach the NGT,” the petition stated.