Sc Asks 513 Delhi Units To Close Shop Of Delhi

In July, it had ordered the closure of 168 units in the hazardous `H' category for violating the master plan and gave them time till November 30 to move out of Delhi. All of them have been put in the H list by the Delhi pollution control committee as they belong to the obnoxious, heavy and large category.

In the hearing before the division bench consisting of Justice Kuldip Singh and Justice S Saghir Ahmad yesterday, the status of 762 more units were considered. There are 1,226 industries which were given public notice through newspapers, but these firms failed to respond to it.

 

Pursuant to the earlier court order, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee issued individual and public notice to 758 units. Again, 470 units did not respond. The remaining 288 filed objections and were heard by the committee. It rejected the objections of 43 and categorised them as H category.

The net result is that 513, out of the 758 industries, have been identified and declared as hazardous. Listing them, the court said we have no hesitation in holding that they cannot operate in Delhi.

The closure is exactly in terms of the order court passed in July. The only change is that instead of the November 30 deadline, the new set of erring industries will have to move out by January 31 next year. The instructions regarding the use of the land vacated by the units are the same.

The court has also given protection to the workers employed by the units to be closed. The workers will be treated as continuing in their employment with a shifting allowance. Those who want to quit the jobs or cannot shift may claim retrenchment benefits including shifting allowance. They shall be paid such compensation by December 31 this year. The shifting allowance will be work out to one year's wages.

The period of shifting shall be treated as active employment with full wages. The workers' terms of employment shall not be altered on account of the relocation, the court clarified.

The court has asked three states