The National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar said on Thursday (October 5) that Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site should no more be treated as a landfill site following the clean-up.
A crash of garbage at the site (which should anyway have been closed 15 years ago) on September 1 had swept several people on a road nearby into a canal, killing two. Two cars were also pushed into the canal. The site remains unstable.
Earlier, the NGT had directed the NCT Delhi and East Delhi Municipal Corporation to report on the Action Plan on segregation, compaction and disposal of the deposited waste of the Ghazipur landfill site as well as the fresh waste of nearly 800 MT that is being brought to this site every day.
The NGT had wanted to know how they will convert this landfill site into a green area in accordance with the provision of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
On Thursday, the bench heard various counsels appearing on the part of the applicant and a number of respondents. The counsel for NHAI mentioned that 30 tons of unusable waste had been removed and rest is going on.
The counsel for the applicant said that the NHAI and EDMC are still playing the blame game and trying to shirk responsibility. The bench asked the officers to sit together and coordinate with each other or else very harsh actions will be taken against the concerned authorities.
The bench asked for a complete report on the methodology for recycling which the EDMC is planning and also directed that Ghazipur shall not be made a landfill site in any case.
The next date of hearing is October 9.
—India Legal Bureau