New Delhi: Residents
of the Okhla area of the capital have have written to the Union Forest
and Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan complaining that the
waste-based thermal power plant set up within the Okhla Bird Sanctuary
and Wildlife Park is inimical to the ecology of the area and a health
hazard for the residents of the localities nearby, according to a report
in The Hindu.
There has been a strident call for the closure, atb least
relocation of the power plant operated by the Jindal Urban
Infrastructure Limited (JUIL) within the eco-sensitive zone.
The residents have noted that the plant is not only situated in the
proximity of residential areas like New Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh,
Sukhdev Vihar and the business district of Nehru Place, but also several
prominent institutions, including Apollo, Escorts and Holy Family
hospitals and Jamia Milia Islamia University.
Indeed a waste-based plant is an immense threat to health, when
there is a hospital nearby, here we are talking about three prominent
hospitals of the city located near the plant.
The plant has been facing a case from the Sukhdev Vihar Residents’
Welfare Association in the National Green Tribunal and moreover, the
Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has a White Paper available on
its website which is against such thermal treatment of waste to
generate energy, as revealed by environmental activist Gopal Krishna of the ToxicsWatch Alliance, who has ben campaigning against the plant since March 2005.
The plant, which essentially is polluting in nature, has been using
unapproved Chinese technology, giving a short shrift to the ecological
fragility and sensitivity of the area.
Located within 2 Km of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, the plant does
not have the mandatory clearances from the National Board for Wildlife
and if one goes by the guidelines of the MoEF in this regard, there is a
clear-cut prohibition against the setting up of industries that cause
pollution of any sort.
Speaking about the plant’s location, a resident noted that the
location of the plant in an eco-sensitive zone, which is a protected
area of Uttar Pradesh abuts the boundary of Delhi.
This attracts the Ministry guideline that where the boundary of a
protected area abuts the boundary of another state or union territory
where it does not form part of any protected area, it shall be the
endeavour of both state and the union territory governments to have
mutual consultation and decide upon the width of the eco-sensitive zone
around the protected area in question.
However this has not been done in the case of the power plant in question.
The residents also pointed out in their letter that the disaster in
Uttarakhand is being cited as the result of opposition to the proposed
eco-sensitive zone in that state by vested interests and urged the
government to ensure that similar gross eco-sensitive zone violations
that could lead to another man-made disaster does not happen,
especially in the national capital and within 10 km of the country's Parliament.
For the original report go here
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