May seal industrial units illegally operating in residential

A Supreme Court-appointed green panel today rapped the municipal corporations and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) over industrial units "illegally" operating in residential areas of Delhi.
Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority chairman Bhure Lal raised the matter during a meeting here and demanded to know the number of such units.
However, officials of the DPCC, the civic bodies and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (DSIIDC), who were present at the meeting, failed to come up with convincing answers.
This invited the ire of the EPCA chief, who sought a list of such illegal units and warned that, if required, the SC- mandated panel will not hesitate to "seal" them.

He said there are hundreds of illegal units manufacturing rubber products at west Delhi's Shadipur.
Earlier, during a meeting with Lt Governor Anil Baijal on December 7, Lal had raised the issue of air pollution caused by industries running in Badli, Bawana, Narela and DTU areas.

EPCA informed Baijal that most of these industries are burning waste, and there are approximately 10,000 rubber units which are in operation and need to be checked.
The LG was also informed about dust pollution at outer Delhi's Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar due to lack of carpeting and pavements, an issue which figured in the EPCA meeting as well.

EPCA also reviewed the status of action taken by various agencies including the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), PWD and Delhi Traffic Police in controlling pollution at Anand Vihar and the DTU (Delhi Technical University) areas.
Bhure Lal instructed the DPCC to intensify patrolling at the DTU to prevent frequent open-burning of waste by sending its own teams instead of outsourcing the work to private contractors.