A day after the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) urged Delhiites to use public transport for the first 10 days of November in the wake of alarming air quality in the city, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has stepped up efforts to address the menace.
The civic agency sealed 297 factories and warehouses dealing in products such as plastic, rubber and chemicals in Mundka, Kamruddin Nagar, Nilothi, Swarn Park, Tikari Kalan and Ghevra on Thursday.
In the last one week, the NMC sealed 516 factories running illegally and polluting the air by emitting poisonous gases and violating various others laid-down norms, said an official, adding that 219 other factories and warehouses were sealed in Shahabad Daulatpur, Prahaladpur and Puthkhurd for running their operation in non-conforming areas.
The official said the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) has provided a list of such polluting units running in residential areas. There are over 10,000 such units operating from such areas and action was taken after a list of these units was provided by the DSIIDC, he said.
The EPCA has also written to neighbouring States of Haryana and Punjab to shut down brick kilns in the NCR from November 1 to 10. It said the industrial area of Mundka will remain closed from November 1 to 10 so that all the debris such as plastic, rubber and other waste is removed by the North Corporation.
The civic body in order to contain pollution also constituted 43 teams under clean air campaign for night patrolling in all of its six zones for checking incidents of air pollution caused by garbage/leaves burning or construction activity.
The official said the dedicated teams would check the areas and issue challans to the defaulter.
He said the building departments inspected various areas for construction activity causing dust pollution. 39 sites have already been challaned and Rs 8 lakh collected for related violations, he said.
He said besides more than auto and six tankers are being used for sprinkling of water on most of the stretches with 12 mechanical sweeping machines also deployed for sweeping on wider roads after sprinkling water on the stretches to control the dust.
