NGT declines corporations' plea for dumping garbage in Bhati mines

The National Green Tribunal has declined a plea from the three municipal corporations here seeking direction for allowing use of 'Bhati Mines' for dumping of garbage.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the abandoned mines need to be closed as per law and cannot be allowed to be mechanically used for dumping of any material.

"We are unable to understand how this Tribunal can direct any place to be made available to the applicant. Neither the applicant has shown any legal right to such place, nor any obligation of owner of such place to do so. The application is wholly misplaced and is dismissed," the bench said in its October 22 order, uploaded Thursday.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by the North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations seeking permission to dump "inert" waste extracted from bio-mining of three landfills -- Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur --in the mines of Asola Bhatti Sanctuary.

The plea said the NGT in its earlier order, dated July 17, had directed that legacy waste dump sites in Delhi be remediated in accordance with law in the interest of public health and protection of environment.

In the course of such remediation, the municipal corporations requires alternative space for dumping of inert material for which abandoned mines be allowed to be used, it said.

The mining operations at Bhatti were stopped 35-40 years ago and since then the pits are lying abandoned.

Asola Bhati is a 32.71 square-kilometre notified 'wildlife sanctuary' that comes under the jurisdiction of the forest department of the Delhi government.

The NGT had earlier asked the AAP government and civic bodies to deposit Rs 250 crore in an escrow account to facilitate waste removal from landfill sites, and warned no officer will get salaries if they failed to abide by the directive.

The green body had said over 28 million tonnes of waste lay at Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites.

The waste is contaminating the groundwater, which is turning "yellow and orange", and reaching the Yamuna, the National Green Tribunal had said.

There are heavy metals in the groundwater and other pollution parameters are many times the permissible limit, the green panel had said.

It said the work to clear waste at the landfill sites should start from October 1 after the monsoon season ends.

It had constituted a committee comprising Delhi chief secretary, secretary, urban development, commissioners of three municipal corporations and New Delhi Municipal Council, member secretaries of Central Pollution Control Board and Delhi Pollution Control Committee to provide technical assistance to manage the sites.

Previously, it had directed the municipal corporations to submit an action-taken report to manage waste after a news report claimed that water had been contaminated in unauthorised habitations near Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites.

The tribunal had said according to the provisions of the Solid Municipal Waste Rules, 2016, the primary responsibility to manage legacy waste and allied issues is of the municipal corporations.

According to the news report, the groundwater in areas nearby the landfill sites contains heavy metals exceeding the WHO norms, and there is high concentration of chlorine nitrate, ammonia and iron, with pH between 7.5 and 8.5. It said 2,000 metric tons, 2,100 metric tons and 1,200 metric tons of waste was being dumped at Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla sites per day, respectively.