HC asks civic body to take steps over garbage in Navi Mumbai

Hearing a PIL, a bench of Justice D D Sinha and Justice Vijaya Kapse-Tahilramani also directed the civic body to ensure status compliance of the report submitted by NEERI and remove all the shortcomings to protect public hygiene.

The judges also directed the NMMC to ensure that the entire process commenced within a period of two weeks and got over within six weeks thereafter.

"We want the respondent-corporation to deal with the issue effectively and immediately to protect environment and health safety," the judges said while hearing the PIL filed by social worker Vasant Mhatre.

The court had appointed NEERI to visit the site and suggest ways and measures to remove health hazards allegedly caused due to dumping of approximately 700 tonnes of garbage every day on the ground in Turbhe in Navi Mumbai.

Accordingly, a NEERI committee had visited the site twice in the past one year and submitted reports suggesting ways to remove health hazards such as planting trees and creating buffer zone between the ground and residential areas.

The petitioner contended that the ground used to dump garbage at Turbhe was a temporary site and that a permanent site, located six kms away from the current place, had been suggested by the court-appointed committee.

The petition said that due to dumping of garbage in a haphazard manner, the authorities were compromising on the health safety of people, as 70,000 huts were located near the ground.

The petition further pointed out that Supreme Court had laid down guidelines for the dumping of garbage which says that a buffer area of 500 metres was to maintained from the ground where the workers were dumping garbage. This was not done in the site at Turbhe, he alleged.