‘Won’t accept garbage from other areas after July 15’

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, June 23

The Manali Municipal Council (MC) has decided to accept garbage from Kullu town, its suburbs and Lahaul at the Rangri Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant till July 15 only.

Manali MC president Chaman Kapoor said, “After July 15, if need be, we will stop trucks from other areas, except from Manali and its suburbs, from dumping garbage at the Rangri site.” He added it was for the government to look into solid waste management of other areas.

The president said if the contractor at the Rangri facility carried out operations in a proper manner, it was sufficient to manage the garbage of Manali and surrounding panchayats. He said an ultimatum had been given to the contractor over alleged irregularities and default in payments. The MC president alleged that the contractor had failed to instal machines to generate energy from waste, as per the agreement done by the previous body of the MC in 2017. He said yesterday about 150 tonne of garbage in five trucks from other areas reached the Rangri plant.

Earlier, the Manali MC had stated that it would stop accepting waste from Kullu and Bhuntar towns, Manikaran and Banjar valleys and from Lahaul areas till Sarchu after June 21. In a meeting with the Kullu DC and other stakeholders on March 21, the other civic bodies and panchayats were directed to make arrangements for garbage management in their respective areas within three months.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had imposed a penalty of Rs 4.6 crore on the Manali MC on May 29 for polluting the Beas through discharge of untreated waste from the Rangri plant. The MC has approached the HC to seek relief in the matter.

As of now, waste from many areas of Kullu was being sent to the RDF plant at Manali by paying Re 1 per kg to the Manali MC, as many urban, semi-urban and rural areas do not have adequate waste management systems in place. The Rangri plant was also working beyond its capacity.

Over the past 5 years, the Kullu MC had been looking for a site to set up a waste treatment plant after the garbage dumping at a yard at Pirdi near Kullu town was stopped from January 2, 2019, following the orders of the NGT and later protests by locals, besides directions issued by the Supreme Court. Many sites were earmarked for setting up the waste treatment plant for Kullu town and its suburbs, but local panchayats had raised objections.