NOIDA: The state government has asked eight districts, including Noida and Ghaziabad, to demarcate land for keeping discarded or impounded 15-year-old petrol and 10-year-old
diesel vehicles
. The environment, forest and climate change department has issued directions that such vehicles be scrapped at the designated places and put into the
recycling market
.
Officials said that while they had been repeatedly nudged by the National Green Tribunal (
NGT) to ensure implementation of the Supreme Court’s ban on old vehicles in
NCR
, they found it difficult to store and scrap such vehicles.
“We have a scrapping policy in place. If we have a space devoted to it, all these vehicles will be parked over there and then you can motivate some business houses to start scrapping these. When it gets recycled, it automatically goes into the market,” Manoj Singh, additional chief secretary of the department told TOI on Monday. The other six NCR districts are Hapur, Meerut, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Shamli and Muzaffarnagar.
When asked about 60% air-pollution-related complaints recorded through the Sameer web application remaining unresolved, he said, “The three different authorities across GB Nagar, and the Ghaziabad Development Authority and Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam need to devise a mechanism to resolve such complaints.”
An RTI response revealed that out of the total 152 complaints received through the Sameer application since August 2021, “just 62 or 40.7% have been resolved so far”.
“The Noida Authority should devise some mechanism for public grievance redressal because the pollution control board can only impose fines and write a letter to them to ensure that the orders of the NGT were implemented but the actual implantation has to be done by the development authorities and civic bodies,” he said.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.
Start a Conversation
Post comment