Civic waste dumping continues at Bandhwari landfill site despite ban

A crisis over disposal of waste by the civic body is yet to come to an end. With no strong alternative means to deal with the problem, the majority of 1,000 tonnes of untreated waste is getting dumped at Bandhwari landfill site despite a ban, it is reported.

With around 800 tonnes of solid waste still getting disposed at Bandhwari, the traditional landfill site located on Faridabad-Gurugram highway, the authorities concerned had been facing the problem of dealing with the crisis that had generated due to dumping of untreated waste over the years and the NGT imposing a ban on such an activity there, sources said.

Adding that the issue has also been flagged by the officials of Gurugram Municipal Corporation, the authorities said it had been lying in abeyance in wake of the assembly elections and the civic body was yet to get any directive regarding the measures required to be taken to contain the problem.

The urban local department and the civic authorities are faced with the deadline of December end to clean up the trash from Bandhwari in wake of the directions issued by the NGT already, it is claimed.

Though two waste processing plants had been set up by the Faridabad Municipal Corporation at Mujeri and Pratapgarh villages last year, these have not been able to function properly due to certain problems.

According to sources in the MC, while both plants, having a total capacity of processing around 400 tonnes of waste daily, remained unoperational for about a month due to rains, only one of these has been able to resume work.

The proposal of setting similar plants at some of the villages in the district got stuck in the wake of opposition by the residents. The proposal of setting up a waste to charcoal manufacturing plant at Mothuka village has also been at primary stage as the state government is yet to acquire the land, it is reported.

While the state government has signed an MOU with the NTPC for the proposed project of setting up this plant at a cost of Rs 500 crore on July 21, it is revealed that no progress has come due to the ongoing state assembly elections.

Padam Bhushan, Executive Engineer, MC, said that the civic body had been working on alternative means and taking measures to ensure proper disposal of the city waste as per directions of the state government.