The Assistant Station Master of Virbhadra Railway Station has been accused of facilitating an illegal parking on railway land while a local has rented out his home near the station to a person who is using it for manufacturing disposable utensils. On the complaint of a local, the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board also inspected the site and found it unsatisfactory.
KS Aswal, a resident of Gumaniwala, Rishikesh has written a letter to the senior divisional engineer (Works) Northern Railways, Haridwar, complaining about Sanjay Kapil who has taken a home on rent in the locality and uses a compression moulding machine to manufacture disposable plates with 8 microns plastic whereas using plastic measuring less than 40 microns is banned.
Aswal alleged that Kapil under the protection of the Virbhadra, Assistant Station Master, has started using railway land for illegal parking. Apart from this, the plastic and other waste from the factory is burnt about 10 metres from the railway track which has increased the risk of accident.
Earlier, acting on Aswal’s complaint, a team from the UEPPCB inspected the site and in its report stated that the small factory is using banned plastic, generating noise levels beyond limits permissible in residential area and burning the waste in a manner which increases the risk of accident.
The UEPPCB inspection report by its monitoring assistant states that when the team went to inspect the unit, Kapil kept the windows of the home open and kept the work on till 9 pm apart from which he also threatened the team with dire consequences. The board’s monitoring assistant has recommended that a notice be served to Kapil.
Meanwhile, in the letter to the railways, Aswal has complained that apart from encroaching on railways land, the garbage from the small factory is also burnt near the tracks which is not only posing a public health risk but also spreading waste at the railway station as the unburnt waste is spread by the wind at the station and surrounding area.