Encroachment from 4 parks in Ghaziabad’s Vaishali to be removed after NGT order

The Ghaziabad district administration has formed a committee comprising officials of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and the municipal corporation for removal of encroachments and solid waste from four parks in Vaishali within a week.

The action came after a resident, Sunil Vaid, approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) with a petition related to Chitragupta Park, Ambedkar Park, Krishna Park and Podium Park, and sought directions to remove unauthorised/illegal encroachments, an end to dumping of solid waste and construction and demolition waste, and steps to ensure better maintenance of these parks that catered to 400,000-500,000 residents.

On the NGT’s directions, district magistrate RK Singh held a meeting on Wednesday and formed a committee to remove encroachments from the four parks within a week.

“The district magistrate has directed the removal of encroachments and resolution of issues within a week. The corporation officials during the meeting said the four parks will soon be taken over by them. These are presently maintained by GDA, even though the locality of Vaishali has already been taken over by the corporation,” said SK Bharti, horticulture in-charge of GDA.

“The proposal for taking over these four parks was approved in the last board meeting and we are waiting for the final minutes to arrive for the takeover to be completed. The GDA is also preparing an estimate of expenditure on maintaining these four parks. The removal of encroachments will start soon,” said Dr Anuj Singh, horticulture in-charge of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

The petitioner contended that “the odour from the waste has made the lives of residents miserable and is also impacting the health of public at large. Many street vendors and hawkers have installed shops and stalls near the boundary of the parks and throw garbage and waste water in the park. Illegal structures are also being raised in the parks without any prior permission or consent of the respondent authorities in gross violation of environment protection norms.”

The tribunal had directed the constitution of a joint committee to verify the ground reality and submit a report for appropriate remedial action.

“In compliance thereof, report of the joint committee has been submitted by UP Pollution Control Board which shows serious violation of environment norms... that there is no proper maintenance of the public parks which suffer from many shortcomings,” the tribunal said in its order of May 26.

In its last order on October 6, the tribunal maintained that paucity of funds cannot be projected as an excuse for neglect shortage of infrastructure cannot be claimed to justify non-removal of encroachments.

It then directed the district magistrate to convene a meeting of all departments concerned within a month for resolving all issues regarding proper maintenance and removal of encroachments.