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Chandigarh administrator backs second garbage plant at Dadumjara, Oppn cries foul
The Opposition leaders, primarily Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors, had been crying foul as the agenda on the new plant had been passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors in the June 6 meeting after mayor Anup Gupta suspended all 13 AAP councillors for a day following their verbal spat with BJP MP Kirron Kher.
Notwithstanding the vehement resistance from the Opposition, Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Monday gave the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) a go-ahead to set up the new integrated waste management plant at Dadumajra, where another plant already exists.
The Opposition leaders, primarily Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors, had been crying foul as the agenda on the new plant had been passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors in the June 6 meeting after mayor Anup Gupta suspended all 13 AAP councillors for a day following their verbal spat with BJP MP Kirron Kher.
On Monday, the administrator called an all-party meeting after AAP and Congress councillors sought his time and demanded to declare all proceedings of the June 6 meeting null and void. Six out of the total seven councillors of the Congress, and 11 out of the 13 AAP councillors and 12 out of 14 from BJP were present in Monday’s meeting.
‘No other option available’
After meeting all-party councillors and listening to their demands, Purohit addressed the media and said, “As per the city’s 1987 master plan, the dumping ground has been approved at Dadumajra. The city does not have any other vacant 50-acre land where the new integrated plant can be set up. Also, the site has already got environmental clearances and the project has been designed and approved by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which is a premier institute and has previously worked on several successful projects like the waste processing plant in
Goa.”
He added, “The new plant will ensure greenery, cleanliness and technical functionalities at Dadumajra and the area will become free of foul smell. Legacy waste will be bio-mined and the fresh waste will be processed on the same day, leaving no scope for garbage dump. Also, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed heavy penalties on Chandigarh for not processing the waste and I advise Chandigarh MC and the UT administration to speed up the process to set up the plant so that the city can be freed of the garbage dump.”
Batting for transparency, he shared that councillors, along with the mayor, will be made part of the pre-bidding meeting -- as members of the high-powered committee -- so that they can discuss technical aspects with the firm.
On Dadumajra councillor Kuldeep Dhalor’s request of relocating the plant from the residential area, Purohit said, “I will personally visit the area every three months to take stock of the processing and listen to the public and councillor’s grievances.” Dhalor owes allegiance to the AAP.
AAP, Congress continue protest
The AAP and Congress councillors continued to oppose the upcoming project.
“The meeting called by the administrator was a mere formality. In fact, the Chandigarh administration has already made up its mind to set up a plant in Dadumajra itself. The administrator got up from the meeting as soon as I wanted to present my point. I urged the administrator to visit the area and see the problems of the local people, but he said that the solid waste plant will be set up in Dadumajra only,” said Kuldeep Dhalor of AAP.
Congress city chief HS Lucky said, “The UT administration is adamant to set up the plant in Dadumajra and now they have got backing from the administrator himself. We still want them to find an alternative site for the plant and it can be set up near N-choe. We wanted to discuss technical and financial issues but he said those can be taken up in a pre-bid meeting. We will decide the further course of action soon.”
‘Abuses should not have been made in House’
Meanwhile, reacting to abuses hurled during the June 6 meeting, Purohit said it should not have happened. “There was some misunderstanding and ignorance. It should not have happened. Also, the house meeting cannot be called null and void because even Parliament sees walkouts, protests and suspension of leaders,” he said.
About the project
Aimed at effectively tackling the city’s daily waste generation of 550 metric tonnes (MT), the new plant, with a capacity of 600 tonnes per day, is proposed to comprise three facilities – one each for dry, wet and horticulture waste. Spread over 20 acres, it will be set up on a part of the Dadumajra landfill after clearing the area and as per the proposal, the project will be allotted for a total of 17 years, including two years for construction, and 15 years for operation and maintenance.
The waste management journey of Chandigarh has been checkered and two legacy waste mountains of 5 LMT and 8 LMT have come up in the past decades as a result of inadequate waste processing facilities.
At present, the civic body collects around 550 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage daily, of which around 374 MT is wet waste while the remaining is dry waste. The Chandigarh MC is operating a wet waste plant on the premises of the erstwhile Jaypee Group Plant, the capacity of which, even after upgrade and extensions, is less than 200 MT daily. With insufficient processing capacity, the civic body is dumping around 174 MT of unprocessed fresh wet waste at Dadumajra dumping ground daily, which can cause a third garbage mountain in coming years if the new plant is not set up.
Notably, MC’s failure to run the solid waste processing plant efficiently has been among the reasons for Chandigarh’s poor show in the last few Swachh Survekshan rankings, and was also a central issue during the 2021 MC elections.
