Legacy waste cleared, Panchkula MC to restore 4-acre Jhuriwala site

Tribune News Service

Ravneet Singh

Panchkula, April 25

The local Municipal Corporation (MC) has completed the bioremediation of legacy waste at the dumping ground in Jhuriwala village. The 4-acre land on the Panchkula-Barwala road will now be restored as a forest with plantation of trees and shrubs.

The MC, which has been functioning without a waste processing plant for long, had been dumping the garbage generated in the city at the Sector 23 dumping ground. After residents raised objections, the civic body decided to dump the waste at Jhuriwala.

Green tribunal hearing today

• MC had been dumping waste generated in city at open ground in Sector 23.
• After residents raised objections, it started dumping waste at Jhuriwala.
• The matter was then brought to the notice of National Green Tribunal.
• In November 2022, the tribunal rapped the MC and fined it Rs 9 crore for causing damage to environment.
• It sought remedial and preventive action to restore the site.
• Officials said the MC would present the status report of the two legacy waste dumping sites — Jhuriwala and Sector 23 — during the NGT’s hearing in the 2022 case of Sanjay Kumar versus Union of India and others on Friday.

The matter was then brought to the notice of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which rapped the MC and fined it Rs 9 crore for causing damage to the environment in November 2022. The tribunal sought remedial and preventive action to restore the site and reverse the damage caused to the environment at the site and its surroundings.

MC officials today said they had completed the bioremediation of over 90,837 MT of garbage at the Jhuriwala site. They said the site, which measured 4 acres, was now cleared of the entire waste.

Manoj Ahlawat, SDO at the MC office, said the work was completed on April 23. “We had started the work of bioremediation in December last year. We have now started plantation of trees and grass at the site to preserve it in a natural way,” he said.

Meanwhile, MC officials also pointed out that the work of bioremediation of the waste at the Sector 23 dumping ground was also going on. They said, “The waste was dumped on around 12 acres. The MC had initially assessed presence of over 3,04,645 MT of garbage, which was processed. But bioremediation of newly identified waste at the same place is underway and could take many months to complete.”

Officials said the MC would present the status report of the two legacy waste dumping sites during the NGT’s hearing in the 2022 case of Sanjay Kumar versus Union of India and others on Friday.

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