Don't congest middle part of Delhi

Coming down heavily on axing trees, the Delhi High Court on Monday recommended civic authorities not to congest middle part of the city and utilise outer part for building residential complex.

"You are busy cutting trees all over the city," the Court said, suggesting to shift people and utilise flats built in Narela and Bawana instead of congesting the middle part of the Delhi.

Listing the matter for further hearing on July 30, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar has asked Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation to file a status report on the basis of meeting which is going to take place on Tuesday with other civic authorities and state government.

The Court's sharp reaction came while hearing a plea of Bawana Factory Welfare Association filed through advocate Yudhvir Singh Chauhan.

The association has sought to close down the illegal factories run in residential areas in Bawana and to disconnect industrial electricity connections. It has also sought to prohibit the authorities to grant industrial electricity connection in residential areas and ban on issue of certificate of incorporation under the Registration of Companies Act in the residential area.

The members of the association have shifted from the non-confirming and residential areas of Delhi to the Bawana Industrial Area.

The members of the applicant association were earlier running their factories in non-confirming areas but in pursuance of the apex court's judgment, they closed their industries and shifted in the Bawana Industrial Area under the relocation scheme of the state government.

The advocate said the members of the association, who are also petitioners, were hurt to know that though they have shifted their industries in non-confirming areas, number of industries still function in residential areas in violation of the Delhi Master Plan.

The industries are not only nuisance for the local law abiding citizens, but is also polluting the entire environment, the plea said.

--IANS

akk/qd/vm