5 weeks after locals put up barricade, Faridabad MC resumes work at waste processing unit
The Faridabad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday removed a barricade near the civic waste processing unit near Pratapgarh village, resuming operations at the plant five weeks after protesting residents put up the barricade here.
Work here had been halted in the wake of the blockade being set up on the road leading to the dumping site last month. Around 200 tonnes of waste is claimed to be processed at the site daily.
A team of MC officials — including NIT Joint Commissione Jitender Garg, Greater Faridabad Joint Commissioner Dweija and Executive Engineer Padam Bhushan — reached the spot and got the iron blockade removed with the help of a JCB machine.
A police team accompanied the officials at the spot to prevent any protest or opposition by residents.
The removal of the blockade led to the resumption of the movement of trucks carrying untreated waste to the processing site.
It had been lying closed after hundreds of residents of Pratapgarh and nearby colonies assembled here and stopped the movement of vehicles by installing the blockade on the road last month.
A spokesperson of the MC said, though some persons approached officials in an effort to halt the plant’s resumption, authorities told residents that the site was not a dumping station but a processing site, which had no harmful impact on the environment of the area, contrary to what was being claimed by some people.
He said residents had agreed to hold a meeting regarding the matter with civic body authorities on Thursday.
Before setting up the barricade, residents had demanded the closure or shifting of the plant, claiming that it had become a source of foul smell and pollution.
The MC had set up two processing units at Pratapgarh and Mujheri villages in the district last year in order to process civic waste.
The move had come in view of the ban imposed by the NGT on dumping of waste at landfill sites, it is reported.
