GHAZIABAD: With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) refusing to extend the deadline to stop dumping of civic waste at Pratap Vihar, local residents on Saturday called off their protest against the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC).The residents had been on a protest since January 16 and stopped the corporation’s waste trucks from entering the Pratap Vihar landfill site.“On Saturday, the municipal commissioner and other GMC officials visited the protest site and assured us that after the NGT committee on solid waste management’s refusal to extend the deadline as sought by the GMC, the corporation would not dump waste at Pratap Vihar landfill site. So, we have ended our protest,” said Haji Ashif Choudhary, a local resident. GMC chief CP Singh said the corporation would abide by NGT’s order.“There is no question of dumping waste at the landfill site after committee’s order and we are already working on a plan to find a temporary landfill site to dump 1,000 metric tonnes of civic waste till the time we get land in Galand,” Singh told TOI.A GMC official, on condition of anonymity, said, “All we want is an extension of two months to dump waste at Parap Vihar landfill site and by that time, we will make the proposed waste-to-energy plant in Galand operational. We have 18 acres of land of a total of 32 acres, and everyone knows the seriousness with which the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and GMC are working to procure the remaining patch of land.”“GMC’s options are limited when comes to disposing 1,000 metric tonnes of waste that the city generates on a daily basis. We are making a last-ditch effort by pleading to the state urban development department which we think can override the NGT committee’s order,” added the official.

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