Following the recent crackdown by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) on 146 polluting and illegal industries in the Mandoli Industrial Area in the national capital, environment experts say that this is just the tip of the iceberg as several such industries still operate in various industrial and residential areas here in Delhi.
Among 146 of the 173 industries that have been asked to shut down, several like copper, aluminum, iron, brass and zinc casting industries were polluting both the air and water in the area, as they had been using poisonous and harmful materials as their fuel.
Some of the other harmful industrial units operating in the area are iron and aluminum melting industries, dye casting, pulverisation (grinding of metals) units which add small particulate matter into the air in the form of dust, among many others.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), told The Sunday Guardian, “These small industrial units would be using such fuels in their furnaces that generate a lot of harmful particulate matters into the air and the metals that are used may also be toxic.”
“Despite the SC’s order in the 1990s that all polluting industries should be taken out of Delhi, such small polluting industrial units still operate here. The government authorities should start acting on these polluting industries with diligence as the Mandoli area is just one such industrial area. There are several other industrial areas in Delhi. These need to put to the scanner to find out whether they are permitted to operate here and necessary action needs to be taken,” Anumita added.
This issue had come to light after a complaint was made to the Public Grievance Commission (PGC) by a resident of the Mandoli area about these illegally operating, polluting industries, following which action was initiated to crack down on these industries.
According to the Action Taken Report filed by the senior environment engineer to the PGC, these industries were asked to shut down after a joint inspection by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and DPCC where they had found these industries to be operating illegally as per the Master Plan Delhi-2021.
N. Dilip Kumar, member, PGC, has also asked the DPCC to coordinate with their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh as some parts of the Mandoli area come under the jurisdiction of the Uttar Pradesh government.
Kumar also said that other industrial areas that operate illegally or pollute would be identified and necessary action would be taken against them.