Chandigarh Municipal Corporation takes over waste plant from Jaypee

Sandeep Rana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 19

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After a legal fight of nearly five years, the local Municipal Corporation today finally took over the Jaypee Group-run waste processing plant in Sector 25.

It has decided to run the only waste processing plant in the city on its own, but may face several challenges. At present, it does not have experts in this field and has little idea about the current condition of the processing machines there.

MC to decide on workers today

After the MC took over the plant, workers, who used to live inside the premises, said they had nowhere to go. The MC asked them to take shelter at the community centre in Maloya. On Saturday, the MC will take a call on them. They are likely to be hired by the civic body.

To top it all, nearly 10,000 tonnes of unprocessed waste is already lying inside the plant. Processing it along with about 470 tonnes of waste, which the city generates daily, will be a herculean task for the corporation.

Social distancing goes for a toss

Due to the presence of a large number of cops, MC staff and company workers, social distancing went for a toss during the takeover process. After the plant was taken over, Mayor Raja Bala Malik and MC Commissioner KK Yadav also reached there.

MC Commissioner KK Yadav told Chandigarh Tribune, “They (Jaypee) did not cooperate with us today. We are preparing the inventory on our own. As decided in the House earlier, we will call a team of technical experts and run the plant on our own. We will have our staff, and, if needed, some staff members already working there will also be deputed.”

Besides, there is a “mountain of garbage” adjacent to the dumping ground at Dadu Majra. The MC has already hired a company to bio-mine the waste lying in the dumping ground under the Smart City project.

The bone of contention between the two parties was non-processing of waste. According to the MC, while the city produces 470 tonnes of waste daily, the plant processes only 120 tonnes. The remaining garbage is thrown in the open dumping ground, leading to foul smell and health problems among local residents.

Today, the top brass of the MC, accompanied by a large police force, entered the plant at 5 pm. MC officials asked company representatives to show a stay order from court, if any. When they failed do so, the process of taking over the plant began. The corporation got the plant locked. Officials covered the name of the company with paint and pasted a notice there stating that the land was in its possession now.

The plant was set up in 2008 at a cost of over Rs32 crore to process 500 tonnes of garbage per day without any capital subsidy from the MC. For a long time, local residents were agitated due to foul smell and non-processing of waste at the plant.

The dispute over the tipping fee and waste processing between the MC and the company even reached the National Green Tribunal and later, the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court too.