Noida DM orders storm drain sale probe

GHAZIABAD: District magistrate Vimal Kumar Sharma has ordered an inquiry into the illegal sale of large chunks of the city's oldest storm drains to businessmen by municipality officials, most of which is being used as car parks or storage spaces.
Sharma, the acting chief of Ghaziabad municipal corporation (GMC), said strict action will be taken against errant officers."I don't know if GMC allowed companies to use storm drains. If permission was given, I believe GMC did not have the right to allow businessmen to use them. Even National Green Tribunal (NGT) has made this clear. Due action will be taken against guilty officials, past or present."
Activists Haji Arif and Sushil Raghav, who took the matter to the NGT, said, "NGT has made it clear that a storm drain is nobody's property. Yet, over a dozen companies were allowed to cover the drains and use the area thus reclaimed."
The covering of storm drains has led to several problems. Not only has it become difficult to clean the drains, leading them to clog, but it has also led to flooding during heavy rains. "When thick columns are built inside the drain to support the parked cars, the drain will understandably clog and become difficult to clean," said Arif and Raghav.
Brij Vihar, Rampura and some areas in Site 4 Industrial Area under Link Road police station are among places affected by such flooding. In one case in Vaishali, a drain wall collapsed and water flooded the basement of a nearby multi-storeyed building, Sharma said. "I have sent a notice to the builder to explain the circumstances and what remedial steps they have taken," he added.
When TOI contacted Bhushan Steel, a steel plant in the Link Road police station area, about its covering of storm drains, its legal adviser, Ravindra Rehani, said, "We'd merely beautified the drain in the year 2000. In 2008-9, GMC officially allowed us to use the drain against a payment. We've done nothing wrong."
When contacted, other parking operators claimed they too had received proper permissions to use the area above the drain.