Address shortcomings at Jhuriwala dump, Panchkula MC told

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 14

A monitoring committee, which is headed by Justice Pritam Pal (retd), has directed the local Municipal Corporation to address the shortcomings at the Jhuriwala dumping ground such as no fencing or boundary around it and regular treatment of waste. The committee was constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The instructions were issued during an inspection of the new dumping site at Jhuriwala by the committee on Monday. The panel also asked the civic body to make sure the waste should not be visible to the public (considering the height of the garbage heaps at the site in future) and ensure plantation at the dumping site.

The panel was in the district for a meeting with the district administration to finalise the draft of the district environment plan (DEP).

The committee’s directions came at a time when residents from trans-Ghaggar sectors are stepping up their efforts against the dumping site, citing environmental concerns, violation of NGT and court orders and threat to flora and fauna and human habitations.

This afternoon, the representatives of Sector 25 RWA also met Justice Pritam Pal in Mohali over the same issue. Senior vice-president, Sector 25 RWA, BR Mehta said: “We apprised him of the whole issue. There were many aspects that were not in his knowledge. He assured us that whatever is in his power, he will certainly do it.”

“The district administration didn’t present a true picture (of the issue) before him during his visit to the dumping ground on Monday,” he added.

On July 9, the Citizen Committee, House Owner’s Welfare Association, Sector 25, had written to the NGT monitoring committee, seeking its intervention on the issue after their “repeated appeals to the administration fell on deaf ears.”

Municipal Commissioner Dharamvir Singh said they were in the process of addressing all concerns pertaining to the new dumping site at Jhuriwala. In June, the MC had stopped dumping waste at Sector 23 and started unloading trash at Jhuriwala.

What experts say

Experts said the dumping of waste in an open area without any fencing or cover most of the time led to light waste getting carried away by winds and reaching nearby residential areas.

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