HC admits PIL by Govandi residents

Mumbai The Bombay High Court has admitted a public interest litigation (PIL) by the Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society, a civil society group from M/East Ward, seeking action against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) biomedical waste incinerator in Shivaji Nagar, Govandi West

Mumbai The Bombay High Court has admitted a public interest litigation (PIL) by the Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society, a civil society group from M/East Ward, seeking action against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) biomedical waste incinerator in Shivaji Nagar, Govandi West.

HC admits PIL by Govandi residents

The PIL was filed on an urgent basis on the afternoon of October 21, just before the Diwali break, and was accessed by HT on October 24.

The petition alleges that emissions from the plant are directly responsible for a high prevalence of tuberculosis cases in the locality. Citing health department data, the petition points out that M/E Ward alone has seen 1,877 TB-related deaths since 2013, and reports around 5,000 individual cases annually.

“The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai had undertaken a baseline survey of socioeconomic conditions of M (East) Ward in Mumbai in 2015 titled “Social Economic Conditions and Vulnerabilities” which, in no unclear terms, reported the following concerning overall health status of people residing in M (East) Ward,” states a copy of the PIL, which has been seen by HT.

“Of major illnesses, more than 50 per cent respondents reported to have what are known as lifestyle illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, respiratory ailments, blood pressure, followed by Tuberculosis (TB). Respondents from Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd and Baiganwadi report the highest number of TB cases,” the TISS report had noted.

The application also cites three peer-reviewed studies -- ‘Biomedical Waste management in India: Critical Appraisal’, ‘Dioxins And Furans; And Hospital Waste Incineration’ and ‘Pollution and Tuberculosis: Outdoor sources’ -- which conclusively demonstrate the health risk posed by biomedical waste combustion. Some of the impacts include compromised immune systems, allergic respiratory disease, reduction in fertility, carcinogenesis, reduced thyroid function, thymic atrophy, wasting of body-mass and increased mortality.

“It is therefore submitted that there is a direct co-relation with consistent increase in number of medical cases concerning Tuberculosis, heart ailments and other respiratory diseases amongst persons who reside in close proximity to the incinerator of the Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Plant at Govandi and therefore, in the interest of lakhs of persons residing in M/E Ward, it is absolutely necessary that the BMWT Plant at Govandi is permanently closed in an expeditious manner,” the group has pleaded, reiterating a long-standing demand.

Notably, the residents had initially filed an intervention application (IA) in the matter of Writ Petition No. 2326 of 2019, which was filed by the BMC’s concessionaire, SMS Envoclean, against a July 2019 closure notice issued to it by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). This was done after the MPCB, in 2018, acted on complaints from local residents and inspected the biomedical waste plant, finding rampant non-compliance with waste management and pollution regulations.

However, taking serious cognizance of the group’s claims, a two-judge bench of Justices GS Patel and Gauri Godse accepted their plea, but dismissed the IA, and instead instructed the petitioners to file a fresh, independent PIL.

The state environment department had earlier instructed the plant to be shifted to Khalapur in Raigad district by February 2022, however the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has said that it will not be possible to do so before June 2023 as the alternative facility has not yet received environmental clearance (EC), which incidentally needs to be granted by the state environment department itself.

“SMS Envoclean, the project proponent, had applied for the EC in 2020, but there have been delays in obtaining the permission. The pandemic had slowed down considerations for fresh EC proposals. Secondly, the state expert appraisal committee which considers these matters had been dissolved after its tenure expired. For almost five months there was no meeting. We are following up with them to process this clearance,” said an MPCB official seeking anonymity.

In July this year, the Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society also wrote to recently-appointed president Draupadi Murmu, saying, “This is the only bio-medical waste treatment facility in all of Mumbai, where hazardous waste is burned regularly nearby to residential areas. The emission of black toxic smoke from its chimney is a health hazard... The deadline to shift the plant increases day by day... Who will compensate the residents for the health problems they continue to face in this period?”