HC refuses to revoke stay to permissions for new constructions

The Bombay High Court today refused to modify or revoke its last year's order which restrained the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) from granting permissions for new constructions in the city.
A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and C V Bhadang rejected a plea filed by Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) seeking review of its February 29, 2016 order.
The order had restrained the MCGM and the state government from granting permission for new constructions -- residential or commercial -- within the city limits.
The order was passed after the court noticed that more than half of the solid waste generated in the city was being dumped illegally in violation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management Rules.

"More and more constructions in the city will increase population density which will lead to generation of more and more municipal solid waste as also construction waste," the court had then said.
The MCHI last week approached the court seeking a review of the order. There was no basis for the court to conclude that new constructions will lead to creation of more waste, it said.

The division bench however rejected the argument and said the main basis of its restraining order was complete failure of MCGM to comply with MSW Rules.
Even today there was hardly any improvement, it said.

The judges noted that as per an affidavit filed by MCGM, 8,600 metric tons of municipal solid waste are generated every day, but the corporation has the capacity to process only 3000 metric tons of solid waste a day (at Kanjur Marg dumping ground), so the remaining 5,600 metric tons are still being dumped illegally.