Ghaziabad: UP Pollution Control Board issued a closure order to 15 hotels, banquet halls, restaurants and malls for operating without environmental clearances over the last two years. It also identified 58 more establishments against which a show-cause is likely to be issued after vetting by officials from Lucknow.In an affidavit filed before National Green Tribunal (NGT) principal bench, UPPCB regional officer Ankit Singh on Monday submitted that Ghaziabad has 625 hotels and restaurants, of which 241 have been surveyed so far. While 109 of the surveyed units have valid consent to establish or consent to operate clearance under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, at least 52 establishments have secured an interim stay from Supreme Court.“Closure orders have been issued against 15 units and their electricity connections disconnected. Further, in respect of 58 non-compliant units, recommendations have been forwarded to UPPCB headquarters in Lucknow for issuance of show-cause notices,” Singh told the bench.Of the units surveyed, one was under the ‘white’ category — small hotels requiring no consent to operate (CTO) as these are officially recognised as practically non-polluting — and six units were found to be permanently closed, the affidavit said.UPPCB has sought three more months to survey and initiate action against the remaining 384 identified hotels and restaurants.The affidavit was filed during the hearing of a petition filed in 2023 by a Ghaziabad resident, Prasoon Pant, seeking action against malls, restaurants and hotels operating without green clearances and extracting groundwater illegally. In July, NGT gave UPPCB one month to identify and crack down on non-compliant units after the pollution control board told it that it had sought data on the hospitality industry from the district supply office, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation and fire department.Counsel for UPPCB informed the tribunal that initially they had a list of 183 units and 442 more were included after data was shared by the district magistrate recently in compliance with the tribunal order, which took the total number of units to 625.In Jan this year, NGT earlier asked Ghaziabad DM and UPPCB to file a consolidated report on detailed action taken against hospitality establishments, specifying the total number of such units which have obtained consent to operate (CTO) certificates, ones with applications pending with UPPCB, rejected applications, closure orders issued, instances where electricity connections were disconnected following closure directions, and cases where complaints were filed against violators.In its preliminary report submitted in March 2024, UPPCB stated that of the 21 units initially impleaded, five were found non-compliant for operating without consent.
