Comply with waste disposal rules, NGT orders Panipat MC

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, July 20

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Panipat MC to ensure compliance of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Lapses in SORTING and storage OF GARBAGE

As per a joint committee interim report, the municipal council had not set up proper secondary garbage storage facilities with sufficient space for sorting recyclable material.

Dr Rajbir Arya, a resident of Sector 25 (part 2), in his complaint to the NGT in December 2021 said the MC and some private industries were dumping garbage and solid waste in the Sector 25 grounds.

Garbage was being burnt in the night and was posing a serious health hazard to local residents. It was also dangerous for around 5,000 children studying in a private school near the dumping site.

Following the complaint, the NGT constituted a joint committee comprising the HSPCB and the District Magistrate and sought a report. The team visited the site and submitted an interim report on July 18.

As per the report, the committee said the MC had not set up proper secondary storage facilities with sufficient space for sorting recyclable material. The MC had set up a covered secondary storage facility for temporary storage of street sweepings, but it was not transporting segregated waste to the processing facilities. Waste was lying outside the boundary area of the secondary collection point and was not properly segregated. The dry waste was mixed with the wet and the solid waste of the collection centre was found dumped in the nearby Panipat drain No. 1.

The committee further said the waste was being dumped on open land, causing damage to the upper soil as leachate percolated through land, contaminating the groundwater.

The HSPCB also served a show-cause notice to the MC, which filed a reply on July 18. The MC said the site was merely a secondary storage and transfer station and it had handed over 2-acre land near Sewah village to M/S JBM Company in February 2023 on which a proper secondary storage facility was being built.

The site was being used for storage of waste temporarily and all processing activities were being carried out at the waste-to-energy plant at Tajpur village of Sonepat district. The MC also claimed that no waste was being dumped in the area. As the ownership of the land lay with the HSVP, the MC would ask the department to develop a green area.

Following the reply of the MC and the interim report, the NGT directed the MC to ensure compliance of the waste management rules and to quantify the waste generation and waste processed so that there was no addition of legacy waste.