Perseverance has paid off, albeit in small measures, for the residents of Govandi, Deonar and Mankhurd who have faced off with the city’s only biomedical waste treatment plant. Acting on their repeated complaints, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has issued a notice to SMS Envoclean asking it to upgrade the facility to prevent polluting the surroundings. MPCB has warned of legal action in case of non-compliance. Locals said MPCB’s August 26 notice has given them the much-needed boost to pursue their fight against pollution. 

“This is a tiny ray of hope when everything went dark. However, we will get relief only when the biomedical waste treatment plant shifts to Khalapur. We wish that no one else has to go through what we have been facing for years now. We have been breathing polluted air every minute, thanks to the infamous Deonar dumping ground and SMS Envoclean. The first step of action has been initiated. I hope they continue to stay firm on this and take action against the facility for non-compliance,” said Fayyaz Shaikh, a local and the president of NGO Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society.