Despite ban, trash piles up along river banks in Himachal Pradesh

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, November 27

Though the Palampur Municipal Corporation is paying Rs 21 lakh per month for the collection and segregation of garbage from 15 wards to different contractors, waste is being dumped on the banks of the Neugal. Moreover, the waste is not being segregated at the dumping site.

Despite public protests, the MC has not initiated any steps for the scientific handling of garbage collected from the town and its satellite areas. The NGT and the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board (HPPCB) have imposed a ban on the dumping of garbage in the state and had directed all MCs to focus on waste segregation, still there is no check on it.

Last year, the HPPCB had imposed a fine of Rs 7 lakh to the Baijnath MC for dumping garbage in the Binwa river.

Information gathered by The Tribune reveals that in the absence of proper supervision and check by MC officials, the garbage, collected by contractors from streets and households of 15 wards, is disposed of at the dumping site. Since no MC officials ever visit the dumping site, heaps of garbage have piled up there, emitting a foul smell and making the lives of people residing nearby miserable.

The Palampur MC was formed two years ago. However, in the absence of a political and administrative will, it has failed to set up a garbage treatment plant. Even three mini-garbage treatment plants taken over by the MC from panchayats have also become defunct.

In the absence of a garbage disposal facility, the MC is dumping its unsegregated waste along the banks of the Neugal, which is also a source of drinking water in the lower areas of Palampur.

MC Commissioner Vikram Mahajan said a proposal on the setting up of a waste treatment plant was pending with the Urban Development Department, Shimla. “It is in the final stage. But, global bids couldn’t be floated due to the poll code.”

Mahajan further said the issue related to the non-segregation of waste by the contractors had come to his notice and he would visit the dumping site on Monday. “The payment of erring contractors will be held up,” he added.

Meanwhile, local MLA Ashish Butail said he had written a number of letters to the Chief Minister and the Urban Development Minister in this regard in the past one year, but to no avail. He admitted that the dumping of garbage had made the lives of people miserable and had resulted in various diseases in the villages around the dumping site.

MC commissioner takes notice

The issue related to non-segregation of waste by contractors has come to my notice and I will visit the dumping site on Monday. — Vikram Mahajan, MC commissioner