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Dadumajra landfill: HC directs Chandigarh MC chief to submit action-taken report
Acts on two PILs, one pending since 2016, highlighting Chandigarh MC’s failure in properly managing city’s waste, leading to a mountain of garbage at Dadumajra
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday sought a detailed action plan, along with a day-to-day action-taken report, from the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) on the burgeoning garbage at the Dadumajra landfill.
The action-taken report, as per lawyers who were present during the hearing, is to be presented in court by MC commissioner Anindita Mitra on May 17, the next date of hearing.
The order was passed by the high court bench of chief justice RS Jha and justice Arun Palli during the hearing of two public interest litigations (PIL), one pending since 2016. Detailed order of the proceedings is awaited.
While the 2016 PIL, filed by one Deepti, had sought removal of the garbage dump from the site, the second PIL, filed by Sector-27 resident Amit Sharma in 2021, demanded a probe into MC’s failure in following waste management and processing rules.
Sharma’s PIL also questioned why environmental laws were flouted and what is the outcome of the crores of taxpayers’ money spent on study tours for waste management.
Through a fresh application, Sharma had requested the court that the answers to these questions be sought from MC, which will allow the court to see the blatant violations.
Even as the plea was filed in July 2021, MC had yet to respond to the issues raised by him, he had told the court. On Thursday as well, MC sought more time to file its response to the PIL.
The plea by Sharma has highlighted gross violation of fundamental rights of over 50,000 citizens living in the vicinity of the Dadumajra garbage dump.
There is an imminent threat to the health and lives of the citizens living in these areas, it said, adding that Dadumajra/Dhanas had 107% more cases of pneumonia in 2020 as compared to all other colonies in Chandigarh, as per studies.
The wretched quality of air and life in the area is further aggravated by the frequent toxic fires in the mountain of garbage that is only getting higher by the day, the PIL said, adding that MC was able to process a mere 13.36% of the waste dumped here in 2020 and only 16.09% from January to May in 2021.
Stating that the problem of unprocessed garbage was threatening to swamp the Dadumajra area, the PIL also alleged that MC had miserably failed in containing fire incidents.
On the other hand, appearing in the second petition, Ranjan Lakhanpal had submitted that the garbage pile had gone up to 40 feet. Even as there were schools, dispensaries and parks in the landfill’s vicinity, MC had only done paper work. There appeared to be no change on the ground, even as the PIL was pending since 2016, he had told the court.
As Lakhanpal and Sharma countered every claim of MC with facts and figures available in the public domain, the court was miffed at MC’s handling of the issue. The court was also concerned about the foul smell impacting the surrounding areas and causing diseases, especially ahead of the rainy season, lawyers said.
