New Delhi: The Centre and the city government were asked on Wednesday by the Delhi High Court to respond to a plea for stopping installation of cell phone towers on residential buildings due to alleged health hazards to people in vicinity from their radiation.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued notices to the Union Health Ministry and the Department of Telecommunication and sought their replies by August 9, the next date of hearing.
The bench issued notices on East Delhi resident A S Jain’s plea, filed through advocate Sugriv Dubey, for direction to the authorities to remove cell phone towers from residential buildings and public places.
The petitioner also sought a direction for implementation of the Prime Minister-headed Inter Ministerial Committee’s recommendations on the issue.
The bench asked the Centre to file the report of the Inter Ministerial Committee and its suggestions on the issue by the next date of hearing. Petitioner’s counsel submitted to the court that the people are being misled as, at the time of installation of mobile phone towers, they are not informed that the radiation from them could cause health hazards.
“The common man is being kept in dark and the effect of mobile towers are not being brought to the knowledge of the residents of the locality where the towers have been installed and hence large number of persons are being affected with the disease like cancer and other disease,” the petition said.
Dubey submitted in his petition that the radiation from the mobile phone towers causes Glioma – a type of brain cancer as reported by a committee of the World Health Organisation.
“The international agency for research on cancer has also established that the mobile phone towers are very powerful causing different diseases to the persons residing within 50 meters of them,” he said.
According to the petition, “The radiation values and norms in other countries are more stringent and the exposure allowed is much lower but in our country there is no specific rule or norm for residential areas, schools, offices, hospitals and play grounds to stop radiation exposure.”
It further said the inter-ministerial committee submitted its report in Jan 2011 with the recommendations to reduce the exposure of 450 MW but government have not taken any steps to reduce the exposure, and the report also has not been implemented. (PTI)