Waste segregation in Chandigarh: NGT seeks fresh report in a month

Forms panel to check ground reality after Jaypee group says MC at fault for poor functioning of its plant

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), through its latest order, has appointed a new oversight committee for Chandigarh and asked it submit a factual report on the status of waste segregation in the city within a month.

Jaypee group tells the tribunal that the plant was performing badly due to MC’s fault as it did not give them dry and wet waste separately. Of the 450 tonnes of waste generated from the city, only that picked from the rural areas is segregated. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The order came after Jaypee group, which runs the city’s waste processing plant, moved a fresh plea before the tribunal, blaming the municipal corporation (MC) for the mess in the plant.

The company has been under pressure ever since the MC and the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) slapped separate penalties of over ₹1 crore on it for not running the plant effectively. According to MC, only 27% of the 450 tonnes of waste produced daily in Chandigarh is being processed at the plant.

As such, MC was planning to move the NGT against Jaypee for its “poor working”. However, before MC could approach the tribunal, Jaypee moved it, claiming that the plant was performing badly due to MC’s fault as it did not give them dry and wet waste separately for processing as ordered by the tribunal in November 2017.

The MC’s counsel, however, challenged Jaypee’s accusations, saying that it was due to their own internal faults that the plant was underperforming and processing not more than one third of the total waste generated in the city.

Hearing the argument, the NGT, in its order dated September 18, constituted a committee to inspect the situation on ground, and asked it to report to them in a month’s time. The case will next come up for hearing on November 28.

COMPOSITION OF OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

The committee comprises CPCC member secretary, a representative of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change from its regional office at Chandigarh, an environment field professor from Punjab Engineering College, nominated by the director of that institute, and a representative of the Central Pollution Control Board from its regional office, Chandigarh.

As per the order, the nodal agency for compliance will be the representative of the Central Pollution Control Board.

The tribunal asked Jaypee to furnish a separate set of papers to the oversight committee to take up their issues.

MC officials, too, claimed that they will also apprise the committee of their concerns.

WILL THIS PUT MC UNDER PRESSURE?

Sources said the NGT panel report may go against MC since the civic body was already struggling to roll out waste segregation in the city. This, despite the fact that the MC had committed to the NGT in March, in another case, to launch waste segregation in the entire city by September 30 — a deadline it is set to miss.

Even as MC chief KK Yadav said waste segregation had started in villages, 90% of the city’s urban areas, which generate the maximum waste, have yet to adopt it. The chances of MC actualising its promise are not so bright, since key reforms, both in terms of infrastructure building and mass participation of residents, are not visible on the ground. This may also affect the city’s Swachh Survekshan ranking next year.