Pollution board stops construction at 62 sites

Mukesh Tandon

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Sonepat, March 2

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has stopped construction at 62 sites in the industrial zone of Barhi and Kundli for violating guidelines of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). It warned building owners that if they failed to comply with the guidelines, an environmental compensation of Rs 1 lakh would be imposed on them.

GRAP @ sonepat: Rs 1L fine

The HSPCB teams had launched a special drive in Sonepat in October after the graded response action plan (GRAP) was implemented in the NCR on the directions of the CAQM from October 1 last year. It warned the owners that if they failed to comply with the guidelines, an environmental compensation of Rs 1 lakh would be imposed on them.

As per the CAQM’s directions, it is mandatory for all projects in the NCR of plot area equal to or more than 500 square metres to register on the dust control portal developed by the state government towards remote monitoring of such project sites for the compliance of stipulated dust mitigation measures. Following the directions of the CAQM, the HSPCB had developed an online portal ‘Dust Control Self-Assessment’.

The HSPCB teams had launched a special drive in Sonepat in October after the graded response action plan (GRAP) was implemented in the NCR on the directions of the CAQM from October 1 last year.

As many as 71 such sites have been found, which include four sites in the HSVP residential sectors, three sites at the HSIIDC, Kundli, 17 sites at the HSIIDC, Rai, 41 sites at the HSIIDC, Barhi, and six sites at the HSIIDC, Kharkhoda, which were under construction and they had not even registered on the HSPCB’s dust portal.

The Regional Officer (RO), HSPCB, had served show-cause notices on all construction-site owners and also directed them to register on the portal. But, despite giving reminders, 62 construction-site owners had not registered their project on the dust portal and several other shortcomings were found at their sites.

The RO has issued notices to 62 sites owners, including 14 industrial construction sites at the HSIIDC at Rai, two sites of the HSVP – one in Sector 7 and one in Sector12, three sites at the HSIIDC, Kundli, 37 construction sites at the HSIIDC, Barhi, in the Gannaur area and six construction sites at the HSIIDC in the Kharkhoda area.

The HSPCB found violations, including non-registration on the dust portal. No anti-smog guns were installed at the sites for controlling dust emissions, no PM-2.5 and PM-10 sensors installed at the project sites and building material was not covered at the sites.

Apart from this, the construction-site owners did not have continuous dust/wind breaking walls and tarpaulin or green net to cover the construction area. They had not maintained a logbook of proper collection, segregated and recycled the construction and demolition (C&D) waste and had not provided dust masks to the workers at the sites, sources said.

Pradeep Singh, Regional Officer (RO), HSPCB, said construction had been stopped at all 62 sites in the residential and industrial areas and notices served on all in which they had been warned not to carry out any construction work at the site without registration on the dust portal and compliance of other shortcomings found at the site.If anyone failed to comply with the directions, then environmental compensation of Rs 1 lakh would be imposed on them, the RO said.