PTI, NEW DELHI: Bawana is not an isolated case, but the entire national capital is a virtual tinderbox as the civic bodies have, over the years, granted factory licences violating norms, according to official records. Ten women and seven men were killed while a man and woman were injured in a massive blaze at a firecracker storage unit in outer Delhi’s Bawana industrial area last evening. Barely a month before the Bawana cracker unit tragedy, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had pulled up civic bodies for indiscriminately granting licences to industrial units.
In an official order, the DPCC, which comes under the Environment Department, said the “root cause” of the proliferation of illegal industrial units was the fact that people are obtaining licences from the civic bodies, despite not having the “mandatory” consent from the pollution board. It also reprimanded agencies such as the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which comes under the city government, and the power distribution companies of issuing water and electricity connections to such illegal industrial units.
“Industries/units are operating both in approved industrial areas/estates/redevelopment areas and also in residential/non-conforming areas without obtaining prior mandatory consent from DPCC,” says the DPCC order, dated December 22, 2017.
