Waste-to-energy plant: Residents do a Hazare

NEW DELHI: Inspired by Anna Hazare and frustrated over the lack of response from the government on the waste-to-energy plant coming up at Okhla, a resident of Batla House went on a 48-hour fast on Friday morning. Another resident of New Friends Colony, Chandra Rajan, has said that if Zain-ul-Abideen’s protest at Okhla does not elicit a positive response from the agencies, she will embark on an indefinite fast from the coming week.

Residents are also planning to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court next week, saying the project is in contempt of its orders of only allowing five pilot projects on waste incineration. “In 2007, SC had lifted its complete ban on incineration projects to permit pilot projects. However, this plant is definitely not a pilot project and is in clear violation of the court order,” said a resident of Sukhdev Vihar.

With the three weeks that environment minister Jairam Ramesh had given to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to review the project coming to an end, CPCB officials said a meeting had been called on April 26 to discuss the matter in detail. “We are evaluating what technical inputs we can give to the project that will make it environmentally sustainable. A report on the issue will be submitted to the ministry shortly,” said a senior official.

Zain-ul-Abideen, a social worker who went on the hunger strike on Friday morning, said he would continue his fast if the project was not stopped. “Municipal waste handling laws clearly say that incinerators can only be situated at landfill sites, not in the middle of residential colonies and major institutions like Jamia Millia Islamia University and Holy Family Hospital. The government is ignoring this to favour Jindal Ecopolis,” he said.

Chandra Rajan, general secretary of the residents’ welfare association, New Friends Colony, D block, said that she had only recently found out about the issue and volunteered to go on a fast as she found the project ridiculous. “The Delhi government has deliberately kept residents in the dark about locating what is planned to be India’s biggest waste-toenergy incinerator and the first one in this country in the middle of a thickly populated area. The hunger strike by Zain is only a curtain-raiser for what will follow if government does not come to its senses,” she said.