Dadu Majra dumping ground issue: HC calls for another action-taken report from Chandigarh Municipal Commissioner

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 17

Nearly six years after the alleged dumping of environmental and other health concerns by the authorities in the Dadu Majra area were brought to the notice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a Division Bench today asked the Municipal Commissioner to share another action-taken report after 30 days.

The Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli was hearing petitions filed against the UT Administration and the corporation by city resident Amit Sharma in person and Dipti Singh through counsel Ranjan Lakhanpal.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, counsel for the Municipal Corporation placed before the Bench an affidavit by Commissioner Anandita Mitra, giving details of action taken and to be taken regarding the dumping ground at Dadu Majra.

Among other things, the affidavit said the waste was being regularly covered and sprayed with 4,000 litres of “EM solution of bio-nutrients and bio-organisms” to minimise the stench. It further submitted that leachate was being sucked out by suction tankers and taken to the STP for treatment. It was claimed that horticulture waste was being converted into manure through aerobic composting and the efficiency of the waste processing plant had been increased. It was further submitted that plans were afoot to process the entire waste through sanctioned projects.

Contesting the claims, petitioner Amit Sharma contented that that the ground reality at the dumping ground was vastly different. The leachate, the stench and the mountain of garbage had not been dealt with for over a decade despite same or similar submissions made by various officers of the Municipal Corporation over several years.

Sharma submitted that the MC had been giving similar assurances from 2008 till date. “Tenders were floated, companies hired, but nothing changed on the ground, he alleged. Sharma also submitted that the MC had spent Rs 33 crore a year ago, which it later said would be able to clear only half the waste. Then the MC spent money on machinery, which a senior official had said, was beyond repair, and now it had raised a bill of another Rs 77 crore to clear the garbage, while refusing to fix its collection.

Highlighting the yawning gap between the waste generated and the waste processed, he argued that unless the MC followed the solid waste management laws, garbage would continue to pile up. He urged the court to monitor the progress in the case because people over the years had lost their faith in the ability of officials to manage the waste.

What the MC affidavit stated

• As the case came up for resumed hearing, counsel for the MC placed before the Bench an affidavit by Commissioner Anandita Mitra, giving details of action taken and to be taken regarding the dumping ground at Dadu Majra.
• Among other things, the affidavit said the waste was being regularly covered and sprayed with 4,000 litres of “EM solution of bio-nutrients and bio-organisms” to minimise the stench.

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