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NGT monitoring committee to visit Ludhiana : MC, fire officials in a tizzy
With regular fire incidents being reported at the municipal corporation’s primary dumping site for the last 12 days, fire tenders were seen attempting to douse the smouldering waste, while health department officials removed garbage from the area surrounding the dump.
With just a day to go for the National Green Tribunal monitoring committee’s visit to the city, civic body and fire officials were on their toes dousing fires and removing garbage in the Tajpur Road Dump area on Tuesday.
With regular fire incidents being reported at the municipal corporation’s primary dumping site for the last 12 days, fire tenders were seen attempting to douse the smouldering waste, while health department officials removed garbage from the area surrounding the dump.
Municipal corporation commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal, and additional commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal also inspected the dumping site on Tuesday.
The monitoring committee will visit the city on Wednesday to probe the death of seven members of a family who were charred to death when their shanty, located near the main dumping site on Tajpur Road caught fire on April 20. While the police have not been able to ascertain the cause for the fire, it is suspected that the fire spread from the burning dump. However, civic body officials have denied the allegations while the victims’ family has alleged foul play.
On April 21, the NGT had directed the monitoring committee led by Justice (retd) Jasbir Singh to present a factual report regarding the incident within 15 days. Notice was also issued to the chief secretary, Punjab, to explain the reason for continued failure to deal with the accumulated legacy waste at the dumping site, despite repeated orders by tribunal.
The tribunal also asked why accountability of the state had not been fixed under Section 15 of NGT Act. Over 20 lakh tonnes of garbage is accumulated on the dump site.
Expedite project to remove waste accumulation: Addl chief secy
Additional chief secretary to the chief minister A Venu Prasad directed the administration to expedite the project to remediate accumulated legacy waste at the landfill site on Tuesday.
Prasad, who was in the city for official business, directed deputy commissioner (DC) Surabhi Malik to start remediation of waste along the lines of Amritsar and Jalandhar.
Over 20 lakh metric tonnes of garbage has accumulated on the main dump site of the MC. Waste processing was put to halt at the main dump site after A2Z terminated its contract to manage solid waste in February, 2021. Over 1,100 metric tonnes of garbage is generated in the city on a daily basis.
MC officials said that the tenders were being floated to hire a contractor to deal with the legacy waste in phases under the Smart City Mission.
