Notices to over 900 bulk waste generators in Ghaziabad to scale down by 400MT
Ghaziabad currently generates about 1,200 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and, according to official estimates, has the facilities to get rid of about 400 metric tonnes of daily solid waste
The Ghaziabad municipal corporation issued notices to owners of 968 bulk waste generators for allegedly failing to comply with the norms for daily solid waste disposal. Officials of the corporation said that included 436 residential societies and high-rises, and 532 establishments, such as banquet halls and industrial units.
Ghaziabad currently generates about 1,200 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and, according to official estimates, has the facilities to get rid of about 400 metric tonnes of daily solid waste. Corporation officials said that a reduction of about 400 metric tonnes in generated waste every day would help the agency efficiently get rid of the rest of the daily solid waste.
As per Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, bulk waste generators include buildings occupied by central government departments or undertakings, state government departments, local bodies, or private buildings with the average waste generation rate exceeding 100kg per day.
Following bulk waste generator norms is also a requirement for buildings constructed over a 2,000 square metre or larger area to get map clearances.
“The purpose of us sending notices is so that bulk waste generators comply with norms. If the bulk waste generators start processing waste, there will be a substantial reduction in the quantity of waste the corporation processes daily. The bulk waste generators have to simply segregate dry and wet waste and convert the wet waste to manure,” said MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner.
“We have asked for compliance within two weeks, else we will start levying financial penalties ranging from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, and submit the list of erring bulk waste generators before the National Green Tribunal. The charges have been determined in accordance with the different directions given by the tribunal and also include environment compensation cost (ECC). We will take the police’s help to enforce compliance,” said Mithilesh Kumar, city health officer.
“We issued three notices regarding ECC earlier this year as well. Erring bulk generators had then deposited ₹26 lakh. We have now written to the Ghaziabad Development Authority and Uttar Pradesh Housing Board to keep the corporation in the loop so that projects which received completion certificates on the basis of declarations of bulk waste processing can be inspected. Once we get the list of issued completion certificates, we will be able to check if installed facilities are operational or not,” Kumar added.
During the Swachh Survekshan, a countrywide cleanliness survey, Ghaziabad slipped from the 13th rank in 2019 to the 19th in 2020.
The rank fell largely because the city currently has no landfill site--the one at Pratap Vihar was shut down in January 2019 on the directions of the UP solid waste monitoring committee.
Residents said that they would have to check if they received any notices or not.
“The corporation must create awareness and their officials should tell us the process of segregation and processing. Then our societies will surely initiate the process. Further, there are societies who do not have extra space and face difficulty in creating a separate space for waste processing,” said Alok Kumar, founder member of the federation of association of apartment owners.