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Dadumajra landfill: Legacy waste to be treated by February, Chandigarh admn informs HC
Chandigarh admn’s senior standing counsel Anil Mehta informed the high court bench of acting chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Aman Chaudhary that original deadline for clearing legacy waste was December 2024
The Chandigarh administration has told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the legacy waste dumped at Dadumajra landfill site will be completely bio-mined by February next year.
UT’s senior standing counsel Anil Mehta informed the high court bench of acting chief justice Ritu Bahri and justice Aman Chaudhary that original deadline for clearing legacy waste was December 2024. However, now revised deadline for the same is February 2024.
One mound of 5 lakh metric tonnes (MT) has been cleared. As of the second mound, with 7.67 lakh MT waste, 5.11 lakh MT has been treated so far. To treat wet waste of 374 lakh MT generated daily, a temporary plant will be set up till the proposed integrated solid waste processing plant to take care of the city’s waste processing needs for the next 25 years becomes functional in another two years.
Mehta was responding to court’s queries posed on Wednesday, when the court had sought details of solutions on waste processing and contracts awarded for clearing the legacy waste and waste generated daily.
The court was hearing a 2016 plea seeking clearing of legacy waste at the Dadumajra landfill. On the same issue, another PIL came to be filed in 2021 by Amit Sharma, a city resident.
During the hearing, Sharma picked holes in MC’s plans. Sharma cited examples from Indore. He submitted that Chandigarh MC has planned a budget of ₹400 crore to deal with the garbage problem when Indore processed a larger quantum of waste in six months within ₹10 crore.
Now, the bench has asked Sharma and the other petitioner to research the contract thoroughly, and propose viable alternatives for consideration by both the court and MC.
