Take photos of Dadu Majra garbage dump site, says HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered its Registry to take immediate photographs of the Dadu Majra garbage dump site, following the ongoing public interest litigations on waste mismanagement at the site.
The Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sudhir Singh directed the Registry to document the current condition of the landfill after visual submissions from both parties. The case, filed by city residents in 2016 and 2021, has been a long-standing issue due to the alleged environmental and health hazards posed by the landfill to over 50,000 residents living in nearby areas.
As the matter came up for resumed hearing before the Bench, drone footage from the petitioners was placed before the Bench in an apparent attempt to bring to the fore the contradictions in the claims made by the Municipal Corporation regarding waste management at the site. Advocate Gaurav Mohunta, representing the MC, assured the court that no new unprocessed waste was being added to the dump and that progress was being made. He mentioned that a fresh pile of approximately 2.25 lakh metric tonnes of waste had accumulated, but it was set to be cleared by May.
Petitioner-advocate Amit Sharma, on the other hand, presented drone footage in an attempt to show leachate flowing across the site and on the so-called ‘reclaimed’ dump, which was allegedly cleared in 2022. Sharma also pointed out that the MC’s assurance since 2018 that no fresh waste was being dumped had been contradicted by the emergence of a third garbage mound. Additionally, discrepancies were found in the MC’s recent affidavit, which initially reported 1.75 lakh metric tonnes of waste in the third pile, but the UT counsel later revised the figure to 2.25 lakh metric tonnes, he added.
Sharma also accused the MC of submitting false affidavits, including a detailed project report (DPR) containing over 150 handwritten alterations, allegedly to manipulate financial estimates worth crores. He claimed these discrepancies and the repeated attempts to transfer the case to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) were deliberate efforts to mislead the court and delay justice.
The matter has been adjourned for further hearing on January 21.
