NGT pulls up MP for poor solid waste management

The National Green Tribunal has pulled up governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan for never giving “priority to municipal solid waste management."

The central bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday pulled up governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan for never giving “priority to municipal solid waste (MSW) management."

NGT has directed the state governments to submit their response on the poor implementation on MSW rules and whether all the municipalities had been provided with the land for establishing landfill sites. The tribunal has also asked the governments to reply whether the municipalities in their states had approached the state environment impact assessment authorities and pollution control boards for requisite clearances in accordance with the rules.

The bench gave these directions while hearing a case file by the environmentalist Subhash Pandey. The next hearing in the case is on November 10.

NGT also stated that the planning commission had apprised the bench that additional financial allocation was made to all three states from 2011-2012 and 2013-2014. However, “none of these state governments even sought any additional assistance under any of the projects for overcoming the problem of pollution due MSW. The respective atate governments accordingly would submit their response on this issue and file affidavits.”

Pandey, who is also the applicant in the case, also alleged that the dumping site at Bhanpur on the outskirts of Bhopal was illegally being used for the last over 30 years without any authorisation and continues to be used in the same way despite various directions by NGT during hearings for the last 11 months.

He also submitted photographs showing poor condition of the dumping site. Pandey claimed that the waste at the dumping site is not being segregated into degradable and non-degradable waste.