Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Chandigarh, September 27
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a Rs 100 crore penalty, to be paid as ‘environmental compensation’, on the Haryana Government for its failure to adhere to the norms related to handling and disposing of legacy solid waste at the Bandhwari landfill site in Gurugram.
About 33 lakh MT of legacy (collected over years) waste lies dumped at Bandhwari in the form of a massive dump, nearly 38 metres high. The site is used for dumping waste from Gurugram and Faridabad.
According to reports dated March 25 and August 3 of the joint committee constituted by the NGT, the Gurugram Municipal Corporation was able to treat 19.43 lakh MT legacy waste through bioremediation and 10 lakh MT through biomining even as entire 33 lakh MT was to be treated by July 31.
The NGT Bench, headed by Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel (retd), directed the Haryana Chief Secretary to deposit Rs 100 crore in an account within a month to be utilised by a nine-member committee. The committee will comprise the HSPCB Chairman, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Urban Local Bodies; ACS, Environment; Faridabad and Gurugram DCs; Commissioners of civic bodies of Gurugram and Faridabad, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority and Regional Officer of the Central Pollution Control Board.
The NGT has asked the authorities concerned not to allow fresh waste to be dumped in Bandhwari. The committee would be free to interact with the stakeholders and also coordinate with statutory regulators for levy of compensation from those who had contributed to the pollution, said the NGT.
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