5 booked for burning industrial waste in Faridabad district

The regional office of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) in Ballabhgarh zone has lodged FIRs against five individuals/units for allegedly burning industrial waste. Though this is the first instance of registration of FIRs in this regard, no arrest has been made so far.

The move comes in the wake of GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan), imposed by the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR.

"The FIR has been registered against persons found burning industrial waste aimed at extracting metals like aluminium, cadmium, silver and bronze in violation of norms in the vicinity of villages like Nekpur, Saroorpur and Qureshipur of the NIT zone of the city," said an HSPCB official. The accused had been burning waste in their fields or operating small units in walled premises in localities close to industrial pockets.

Earlier this year, a seven-member committee headed by the DC had been set up to keep a tab on the burning of industrial and e-waste.

The committee, consisting of officials from the municipal corporation, pollution control department, District Industries Centre and the police, had been asked to take action against violators. The move had come in wake of observations by the Supreme Court in the matter of the burning of e-waste in the NCR.

Narender Sirohi, a resident, said complaints had been lodged with the NGT in this regard in the past two years. Work was being carried on in an unorganised manner in pockets of Saroorpur, Nangla, Ghazipur and Qureshipur villages, where furnaces were used for extraction, resulting in acute pollution.

Dinesh Kumar, Regional Officer, HSPCB, Ballabhgarh, said FIRs were part of the action taken against the offenders.