Waste management a sore point for Panchkula MC

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, September 18

The waste management, the most basic of all the civic amenities, remains a sore point for the Panchkula Municipal Corporation as it has been unable to setting up a proper dumping ground for the disposal of garbage.

The city generates around 120 metric tonnes of trash daily and in the absence of a solid waste management plant at the Jhuriwala dumping ground, untreated garbage is being disposed of at the site in violation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

A panel constituted by the National Green Tribunal has also served a notice on the civic body in this regard in July this year.

The MC, surprisingly, has not yet submitted its reply to the notice, forcing the panel to issue a reminder and giving the civic body a last opportunity to submit a detailed report to the NGT.

The NGT panel had inspected the dumping site at Jhuriwala before seeking comments from the civic body.

No fencing, no plantation and no garbage treatment plant at the site are among the violations of the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, said Justice Pritam Pal, NGT panel chairman and former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, however, has reiterated that a solid waste management plant would be constructed at the Jhuriwala dumping site soon under a cluster plan.

Meanwhile, trans-Ghaggar residents continue to protest against the Jhuriwala dumping site against it, saying it will have long term consequences on flora and fauna.

“The rules ask landfill sites to be located away from habitation clusters, forest areas, protected areas, water bodies and historical places. Are these rules not applicable in Panchkula?” asked BR Mehta, senior vice-president of the Sector 25 residents’ welfare association (RWA).

After Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s instructions to stop garbage disposal at the Sector 23 dumping ground on June 2, the MC begun dumping garbage at Jhuriwala without any plan on waste processing.

If dumping site remains an issue, other aspects of the city’s waste management also need improvement.

The door-to-door waste collection, which lies in the hands of private waste collectors working under contractors, is also not up to the mark.

“After the door-to-door collection, the waste is dumped at dumping spots in every sector. But it’s further not picked up at a pace which is required for timely clearance. There has been no improvement in the garbage collection system in the recent years, rather it has deteriorated to a certain extent,” claimed SK Nayar, president, Citizens’ Welfare Association (CWA).

To improve the overall waste management efficiency, the Panchkula Municipal Corporation had roped in an NGO – Feedback Foundation – for door-to-door collection, segregation, treatment and disposal of waste. The project, which was flagged off from Sector 12-A, was planned to be implemented in other Sectors in a gradual manner. However, before that could happen, the private waste collectors were up in arms, saying it would deprive them of earning a livelihood.

Under pressure, the civic body eventually had to delay the project.

Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said: “Eventually, we would have to seek private sector’s help for better waste management.”

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