Landfill site in Aravallis, three Gurugram villages raise a stink

Tribune News Service

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, November 18

Residents of three Gurugram villages — Balola, Gwal Pahari and Baliawas — are up in arms against the setting up of a waste treatment plant in the Aravallis. The civic authorities have earmarked 20 acres for the project at Balola village.

Residents there allege the authorities earlier exploited the Bandhwari area for decades and they won’t let their village be used as a landfill site.

“The village is in the forest area. The setting up of a waste treatment plant here will pollute air, water and soil,” said Master Karam Singh of Gwal Pahari. The villagers have approached the CM and threatened to launch a protest.

The authorities have earmarked 92 acres at Gothra Mohabbatbad and 52 acres at Pali, both in Faridabad, and 20 acres at Balola in Gurugram for waste treatment plants. The move came after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) slapped Rs 100 crore damages on the state government for failing to clear legacy waste from Bandhwari on the Gurugram-Faridabad highway. Being in the Aravallis, the selection of the Balola site has drawn flak from various sections. “The authorities claim the waste will be cleared on a daily basis, but we know how things work. We won’t allow the plant to come up in our village,” said Mangal Tanwar of Balola.

P Raghavendra Rao, Chairman, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, who heads the panel formed by the NGT, insisted that there won’t be any landfill, but just a segregation unit. However, environmentalists refuse to buy it.

“Earlier, 34 acres of pristine land at Bandhwari in the Aravallis was damaged irreversibly. Now, this choice of site will cause more damage. We need to save the forest,” said environmentalist Vaishali Rana Chandra, in a letter to the state authorities. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram had earlier identified a 5-acre site in Basai. The project was scrapped after objections by its residents.

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