With over two dozen group housing societies/highrise apartments — Supertech Cape Town, Ajnara Klock Tower, Supertech Ritz Chateaux, Express Zenith, Civitech Sampriti and Elite Homz to name a few — these sectors constantly face dust pollution, mostly from ongoing construction work in residential projects and damaged and un-repaired roads. Together, these societies and neighbouring villages of Sorkha and Sarfabad, house over 50,000 residents who claim the dust pollution is becoming a daily battle and health hazard.

"Children and senior citizens frequently fall sick due to the bad air here," said Sector 76 resident Devender Singh. "Roads dug up either for repair or laying of cables/wires are mostly are un-repaired. Vehicles crossing these roads continuously raise dust from their broken surfaces," said Dhananjay Singh, who lives in Grand Ajnara, Sector 74.

"I've been complaining about dust pollution in these sectors for many months. It's mostly due to ongoing construction work. But the authorities have not bothered to take any remedial action," said Amit Gupta, resident of Prateek Wisteria in Sector 77, who was among those wrote a complaint letter on December 21, addressed to the offices of Authority CEO Alok Tandon, DM B N Singh, city magistrate Mahendra Singh and the local UPPCB office.

Following their complaint, PCB junior engineer P P Singh visited these sectors on December 31, and noted that NGT norms were indeed being flouted. He submitted his report to the Authority on Tuesday. "In the area, I noted both roadside dust and construction material lying unattended. Also, builders don't appear bothered about taking measures to restrict dust pollution by sprinkling water, etc. I've mentioned it all in my report, which I submitted to the Authority on Tuesday," Singh told TOI.

Other demands made by residents include air quality monitoring stations near these sectors, a mechanical sweeper dedicated to the area, and use of water sprinklers.