Five societies get notices for not building sewage treatment plants in Noida

NOIDA: The Noida Authority has issued notices to five gated societies that were found releasing sewage directly into drains in the absence of any sewage treatment plant (STP). These five societies — Skytech Matrott, Amrapali Silicon, Assotech Windsor Court, Sikka Karmic and Aditya Urban Casa — were among 33 apartment complexes that were surveyed by the Authority.
The survey was part of a drive to check the status of STPs in 80 apartment complexes where possession notices have been given by the Authority.In the first phase, 33 societies were examined.
Avinash Tripathi, officer on special duty at the Authority, said a report would be prepared against the five societies and forwarded to the National Green Tribunal as well as the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board for further action. “These apartments are discharging sewage directly into the drains. Notices have been issued to each of them,” he added.
A penalty of Rs 50,000 a day can be imposed on each of these apartments if the pollution control board finds them guilty.
Among the remaining 28 societies that were examined in the first phase, nine were found to have installed STPs of a much lower capacity that what is required.
Tripathi said that if a builder has already handed over a society to the Apartment Owners’ Association, its members would be held accountable. However, the AOAs said the Authority needs to examine past records to find out who had acted negligently.
Rajesh Sahay, general secretary of the Federation of Apartment Owners’ Association in Noida, said, “Occupancy certificates are given when all formalities are fulfilled by the developer. A system has to be evolved where the Noida Authority supervises the handover process of a society from the builder to the apartment owners. Officials will be in a better position to decide whether all rules and norms were followed by the builders.”