Delhi High Court tells MCDs to submit waste management rules within two weeks

Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment submitted a long-term action plan for solid waste management. In the report, Narain said one of the major challenges concerning solid waste management was unauthorised disposal of waste in vacant plots and open areas.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the municipal corporations to complete within two weeks the draft by-laws for Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and place it before the court.

Three main landfills in Delhi have exhausted their capacity and yet garbage is still dumped there as there are no alternatives. The Delhi High Court has ordered the municipal coporations of Delhi to submit plans for management of municipal solid waste.(Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The direction from a bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar came during the hearing of two petitions filed in public interest seeking directions to the municipal bodies and other authorities to take steps to prevent spread of dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment submitted a long-term action plan for solid waste management. “For a poor country like India, waste has to be turned into a resource,” she said.

In the report, Narain said one of the major challenges concerning solid waste management was unauthorised disposal of waste in vacant plots and open areas. Currently, a fine of Rs 50 is imposed for littering, which she said was “too low and needs to be revised”.

The report, which was prepared by experts including Almitra Patel and MC Mehta, said all the three existing landfills of Delhi — Okhla, Bhalswa, Gazipur — were filled beyond capacity in 2008.

“The dumping sites in Delhi do not have any methanisation or gasifiers to control the methane being produced naturally by the biodegradable garbage. There are no fire protection systems at these sites, thus making them a potentially flammable location,” the report said.

At present, mixed waste is usually collected and sent to the dump-sites or waste-to-energy plants or compost plants. “An effective system of waste segregation is required at appropriate stages i.e. source of waste generation, collection, transportation, processing and disposal,” the committee recommended.

To enforce segregation at source, the committee of experts recommended that owner of commercial or residential area, apartment owner/societies, institutions, industries etc. shall maintain two types of dustbins, ‘green’ for storing wet waste and ‘blue’ for storing dry waste.

It also recommended that MCDs must incentivise segregation at source by awarding and recognising the households by giving certificates, by publishing their names on websites or reduction in property tax etc. It recommended penalising households, societies and others for non-segregation.

The rate of segregation in the city is not more than 2% and is restricted to a few institutions and areas such as Defence Colony and Delhi University.

The committee also recommended imposition of waste generator user-fee and penalties as per the SWM Rules 2016.

The municipal corporations had raised the issue land shortage for processing and disposal of solid waste.

Replying to this, the bench told the MCDs to look at the expert panel’s plan for garbage disposal before asking for more land. The bench has posted the case for further hearing on September 19.