GHAZIABAD: The Haj House in Ghaziabad was sealed on Tuesday for failing to install on its premises a sewage treatment plant that meets pollution-control standards. A panel of three officials formed by district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari sealed the premises after conducting an inspection on a directive by the National Green Tribunal ( NGT ).“The NGT had directed the pollution control board to inspect the Haj House and seal it if it did not find a sewage treatment plant there. Officials of the pollution control department inspected the Haj House’s premises on Tuesday but found no such plant there. The department had requested the district administration for police back-up and the presence of a magistrate while conducting the inspection. This was provided to them,” Maheshwari said.The inspection panel formed by the district magistrate on February 19 comprised city magistrate Pradeep Dubey, UPPCB regional officer Ashok Tiwari and Sahibabad SHO Rakesh Singh. The Haj House had been built during the regime of Samajwadi Party and was inaugurated by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in September 2016.The NGT had issued the directive on February 6 while hearing a petition filed by environmental activist Himanshu Mittal and three others seeking demolition of the Haj House on the ground that it had been constructed on land earmarked as floodplains of the Hindon river in revenue records.After going through the records, the NGT had said that the land on which the complex had been built did not fall in the floodplain zone and the irrigation department had already separated the riverbed and floodplain areas by constructing an embankment in 1970.An NGT bench comprising acting chairperson UD Salvi and expert member Nagin Nanda had, however, directed the UP pollution control board to conduct an inspection at the Haj House premises and given it the liberty to seal it if a sewage treatment plant of 136KLD capacity was not installed. During the course of the hearing, UPPCB officer Paras Nath had submitted a report recommending the installation of a 136KLD sewage treatment plant, anticipating the volume of domestic effluents that could be discharged from the complex.“The no-objection certificate for the Haj House had been issued by the pollution board on the condition that a 136KLD plant would be installed there. The plant was to be installed by the construction and design section of the UP Jal Nigam. However, we did not find the plant anywhere during our inspection,” UPPCB regional officer Ashok Tiwari said. In accordance with the NGT order, the UP Haj House Committee, the agency that undertook the project, can appeal to the tribunal to allow the Haj House to function after it fully complies with the UPPCB’s recommendations.Mohsin Raza, state minister for Haj and Waqf, said: “The matter concerns the environment and NGT, so there can be no interference. A detailed report will be sought on Wednesday and things will be clearer on what steps can be taken after that.”

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