Chandigarh MC scraps contract with Jaypee, to set up new waste plant in a year
Municipal commissioner KK Yadav said the termination notice will be issued to Jaypee Group on Wednesday, giving the Delhi-based firm a month to vacate the premises.
Chandigarh The Chandigarh municipal corporation’s General House on Tuesday terminated the contract with Jaypee Group, which is running a garbage processing plant in Dadumajra, and passed a resolution to set up a new facility at the same location in the next one year. The expressions of interest for the new plant will be floated within two weeks, the House resolved.
Municipal commissioner KK Yadav said the termination notice will be issued to Jaypee Group on Wednesday, giving the Delhi-based firm a month to vacate the premises.
“In case, it does not comply with the notice, the MC would reserve the right to dispose it of at its own level,” he said.
Also, after an independent valuation, the civic body will pay the firm the depreciated value of the composting facility inside the Dadumajra plant, which will be used to process wet waste. All the previous penalties that the MC and Chandigarh pollution control committee had imposed on the firm will be deducted while making the final payment.
Pressure to mount on open dumping ground
Meanwhile, the dry waste will be dumped in the open ground opposite the plant till the time the new facility is built.
Yadav said that in any case, a major chunk of the waste generated in the city was being thrown in the dumping ground because of Jaypee Group’s failure to run the plant efficiently.
“It was due to the plant’s failure that there is a mountain of unprocessed waste at the dumping ground. Now, we will be setting up a plant with the latest technology to serve the city well for the next 50 years,” he said.
The MC chief also informed that the MC would not let unprocessed waste pile up at the dumping site. “While the work on processing 5 lakh tonnes of waste has already started at the site, a similar agency will be hired to process the leftover waste too,” he said.
According to a rough estimate, the total accumulated waste at the dumping site has crossed 10 lakh tonnes.
Curtains down on long-standing dispute
With the House’s latest decision, the MC has finally broken decade-old ties with Jaypee Group. The company had set up the waste processing plant in Dadumajra in 2007, but the civic body was never satisfied with its functioning.
The MC in 2017 made an attempt to scrap the contract, but Jaypee got relief from the National Green Tribunal.
However, the plant’s functioning did not improve. The MC recently told the NGT that the plant was still processing just 20% of the city’s daily waste of 500 tonnes.
In view of this, the NGT in its February 12 order came to the MC’s rescue and gave it a month to make alternative arrangements if it was no longer viable to work with Jaypee.
When the matter came up for discussion during the House meeting on Tuesday, all councillors were in favour of terminating the contract and set up a plant with latest technology keeping in view the city’s needs for the next 50 years.
As councillors cautioned the MC that Jaypee might take legal recourse against the House decision, Yadav directed the legal officer to file a caveat in Chandigarh courts, Punjab and Haryana high court as well as in the Supreme Court so that any decision on the firm’s petition is taken after giving a proper hearing to the civic body.
BJP councillor and local party chief Arun Sood hailed the decision and said the garbage problem had become chronic in the past 10 years. “Today, I am happy that our party has taken a firm decision to resolve it in the best interest of the city,” he said. Mayor Raj Bala Malik said the new plant will up set up with modern technology.
BJP councillors blamed the then Congress-led House for entering into an agreement with Jaypee, while leader of opposition Devinder Babla snubbed the former, stating that it is because of their “misrule” that “waste management became a major headache”.
