SC to hear Uttarakhand's plea for resuming construction work

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the Uttarakhand government's plea for vacation of its August 31 order staying construction activities in some states and union territories.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur posted the matter for Wednesday after Uttarakhand's counsel mentioned the plea for vacation of the stay.

The state government pleaded that Uttarakhand is facing a "crisis situation" due to formation of an artificial lake in Tehri Garhwal, adding that the stay on construction activities be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken to save human lives.

Construction activities have been stopped at a time when the state is facing a crisis due to rains and landslides, the counsel said.

On August 31, the top court had imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the Uttarakhand government for not framing a policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The Uttarakhand government informed the court that it has prepared a revised policy as per the Rules and it has been cleared by the Ministry concerned.

The top court had slammed some states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh for not framing their respective policies on solid-waste management even after two years, and had stayed further constructions there till they come up with it.

The top court is hearing a matter related to the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules.

It had earlier directed the Central government to submit a chart, indicating whether states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of the said Rules.

--IANS

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