NGT bans dumping of waste near school, issues notice to EDMC

A plea alleging that reckless dumping of garbage and municipal solid waste near a school in East Delhi was causing health hazard to the children has prompted the National Green Tribunal to retrain authorities from throwing any waste in front of the school.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notice to East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and sought its reply in two weeks on a plea filed by a former scientist.

"In the meanwhile we restrain the EDMC or any other person from throwing municipal solid waste or any other kind of waste in front of the school in question and the Corporation should also take all steps to remove the waste that has been dumped in front of the school gate," the bench also comprising justices M S Nambiar and Raghuvendra S Rathore said.

The tribunal also took exception to unplanned dumping of municipal solid waste and said that school children were suffering due to the mismanagement of the Corporation.

The matter is now listed for next hearing on September 23.

The green panel was hearing a plea filed by retired scientist C V Singh seeking directions to "collect, segregate, dispose and transport" the solid waste of the dump sites according to the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Singh, in his plea filed through advocate Gaurav Bansal, said that while passing through Indraprastha Extension here, he observed that two 'dhalaos' (garbage collection points) are situated at the gate of a government school in West Vinod Nagar and near Mohammad Chowk, Vinod Nagar respectively.

"A vegetable market also assembles near the said school on a daily basis and the residue vegetables cause a lot of intense foul smell around the said area...It is respectfully submitted that natural process of decomposition of an organic matter in an unmanaged form leads to intense foul smell resulting into various critical diseases.

"Due to mismanagement and littering of solid waste dumped at dhalao no 1, the adjacent road gets automatically covered with solid waste resulting into traffic congestion leading to vehicular pollution," the plea said.