Hearing in treatment plant case adjourned

Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 20

The Court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of the solid waste management plant case till March 2.

Earlier, the Court had granted interim stay on the plea of the Municipal Corporation against the JITF company’s notice to terminate the contract.

The MC had filed an appeal against the JITF company, which is running the solid waste management plant, accusing it of walking away from the contract agreement after the latter served a termination notice regarding leaving the work and stopping the operation of the plant after January 18.

In 2015, the construction work of the plant was completed at a cost of Rs28 crore. The plant is spread on 30 acres, where the city had been dumping garbage for the past three decades. But, the plant remained in controversies ever since it started its operations.

Since then, residents of 20 colonies have been up in arms against the treatment plant. They said the stench emanating from it was unbearable and it posed health hazards to residents living in the nearby localities.

Meanwhile, the company and the MC were fighting a legal battle in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), New Delhi. A few months ago, the NGT had cancelled the cases and told them to resolve their dispute at their own level.

However, they failed to resolve the issue. Irked over it, the company gave a consultation notice to the MC. But, when the latter did not give any satisfactory reply, the company sent the termination notice to the Director of the Local Bodies Department on December 5, 2018.

The issue

The MC had filed an appeal against the JITF company, which is running the solid waste management plant, accusing it of walking away from the contract agreement after the latter served a termination notice regarding leaving the work and stopping the operation of the plant after January 18.