On the night of December 31, mere hours before the Delhi government's anti pollution measures, specifically the odd even rule, was supposed to come into effect to help the city breathe easier, residents of E2 noticed something was wrong with the air, as a fire was lit in the large empty plot of land, that has massive amounts of waste, including plastic waste, was set afire.
The new year descended quite rudely on a residents of a south Delhi locality when burning of mass amounts of illegally dumped waste made almost 200 people sick and sent some children to the hospital. Residents of the E2 apartment blocks in Vasant Vihar, were either assaulted by the billowing smoke during night long New year's eve celebrations or woke up to burning eyes and choked lungs in the morning.
On the night of December 31, mere hours before the Delhi government's anti pollution measures, specifically the odd even rule, was supposed to come into effect to help the city breathe easier, residents of E2 noticed something was wrong with the air, as a fire was lit in the large empty plot of land, that has massive amounts of waste, including plastic waste, was set afire. By midnight it had intensified to horrifying degrees, as parties in the apartment complexes were abruptly ended when residents found themselves unable to breathe.
The plot, bordering Vasant Kunj and the urban village of Mahipalpur, apparently belongs to the DDA, and despite previous attempts by the authorities, no one has been able to stop the dumping and regular burning of waste there
Mukesh Verma, secretary of the Residents Welfare Association, had to take his three year old son to the nearby Fortis hospital when the boy's coughing got out of control. At 2:30 am, when nearly 200 residents complained of feeling sick, with some others having to take their children to their doctor's, he drafted an email to the National Green Tribunal, claiming that the burning of "hospital waste, polythene and plastic" had caused many to fall ill.
Another resident Vaani Arora told dna that she and her family didn't notice the bad air till late because their indoor air purifiers were on and they fell asleep early. However, in the morning they woke up to, she described burning eyes and inability to breathe properly, leading them to leave the house immediately for other quarters.
Verma and Arora both said that this was hardly the first time this had happened. Arora has bought air purifiers because her three year old daughter had been on and off the inhaler last month because of the bad air. Such is the case with other young children in the area. One of her neighbour three month old baby had to be put on a nebuliser recently.
On Thursday night, one resident, Verma said, woke up to such amounts of smoke he thought he was having a heart attack because he couldn't breathe. Only last week, when the waste was burnt again, a family with their infant had to stay the night in a hotel.
For weeks, residents of the Vasant Kunj complex have been fleeing their homes at night when the waste burns. From what they have learnt, after complaints to the police and the SDM, scrap dealers burn wires to extract copper and trucks come and dump huge amounts of waste at night in the plot. Arora said that despite complaints, the police said they couldn't find anyone lighting fires, neither on 31st, nor previously. Once a fire brigade had to be called, and they took three hours to reach and out out the fire as they claimed not to know the way.
For now, the SDM has promised action, imposing sect 133 of the CrPC and promising to find and fine the offenders.
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