Dumping of garbage at Sec 74 sans PPCB nod

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 20

Around 125 tonnes of garbage, generated by the city everyday, is being dumped at Sector 74, the IT hub of the city, without an approval of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

The PPCB has raised some objections and asked the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MC) to take action to remove these immediately. As the MC has failed so far to comply with decisions of the PPCB in this regard, the board did not renew its approval for dumping garbage at the site for the past one year.

The PPCB has raised objections after finding total dissolved solids, iron and chloride beyond the permissible limits, prescribed in the Solid Waste Management Rules framed after the analysis of groundwater sampling, conducted on August 4, 2016.

The other report of sampling, conducted on March 16, 2017, again showed similar results, showing the value of copper, mercury, chloride, total dissolved solids and hardness beyond the permissible limits. Besides, the PPCB also found that the MC was not complying with some other rules, including fogging of melathene every week. It has also failed to assure a minimum five-metre green belt around the dumping site.

When contacted, MC SDO (Civil) Sukhwinder Singh admitted that they (MC) have no PPCB approval for dumping garbage at the site for around one year. “We have applied for the renewal of the approval. Communiques are being sent to the board,” said Sukhwinder Singh.

When asked about the presence of copper, mercury, chloride, total dissolved solids and hardness beyond the permissible limits in the underground water at the site, Sukhwinder Singh said they had written to the Regional Advance Water Testing Laboratory for testing in this regard. “The testing is yet to be conducted,” he said.

However, he claimed that other measures, including laying of four-inch layer of soil on garbage and regular fogging and spray of disinfectant once in a week at the site under the rules, were being well taken care of.

The MC has been paying Rs 75 lakh per annum to a private player for the management of garbage at the site.

No arrangement for processing of waste

• The city has no arrangement for processing  garbage. Due to this, it will lose crucial points in the upcoming Swachh Survekshan-2018. The MC House had passed a resolution for getting private services for it  but it is yet to get the nod of the state government. Even the project of segregating dry and wet garbage has proved to be a damp squib.   
• Door-to-door collection: The waste generated by the city is collected by private persons, which is dumped at 50 secondary points. From these secondary points, MC officials  dump it at the Sector 74 site.