Builders grinding construction pollution norms to dust in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Flouting building and construction norms contributes significantly to the toxic air in Delhi. To plug this significant source of pollutants and to deter violators, National Green Tribunal began levying an environmental compensation charge for not adhering to the norms in 2015.

However, an internal check in the municipal corporations showed that recovery of the fines was low and only a fraction of builders and violators actually paid the penal sums in many administrative zones.

When a check of records between 2015 and 2018 was carried out in the building department in South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s south and central zones and north corporation’s Karol Bagh and Civil lines zones, the recovery rates of the environmental compensation charge were discovered to be as low as 13.3% and 24%, respectively.

The building department in the south body had issued 857 notices to erring owners from 2015-16 to 2017-18 asking them to deposit compensation amounts of Rs 3.3 crore. Of the notified amount, only Rs 43.7 lakh was actually collected, with Rs 2.9 crore still pending. The abysmally low recovery rate of 13.25% has been red-flagged.

Similarly, in the case of the north corporation’s two zones, the building department issued 462 notices for a total amount of Rs 1.5 crore, but recovered only Rs 37 lakh, with Rs 1.1 crore yet to be collected from the 346 building owners booked for violations.

The Delhi municipal bodies are divided into 12 administrative zones, with four falling under SDMC, two under EDMC and six under the north body. NGT had mandated environmental compensation charges varying between Rs10,000 and Rs 5 lakh, depending on the size of construction or building plots. A plot up to 100 sq metres in size attracted a fine of Rs 10,000, while those of 101-220 sq metres were liable for a penalty of Rs 20,000. For plot sizes of 2,000 sq metres and above, the fine determined was Rs 5 lakh.

An IIT-Kanpur study on Delhi’s air pollution had noted that in a metropolitan city, construction and building were frequent activities and the third biggest contributor to PM10 pollutants. More importantly, these were ever-present sources through the year. “The control measures for emission may include: wet suppression, wind speed reduction for large construction sites, proper disposal of waste, proper handling and storage of raw material and store the waste inside premises with proper cover,” the study recommended.

Internal municipal reports admit that in the cases where the fines remained uncollected, neither was any action taken against the offenders nor notices issued to them to appear before NGT. The irregularity was brought to the notice of corporation officials but a reply was awaited, the report said. A civic official described this as an interim report and the matter would be clarified at an appropriate stage.