NGT directs EDMC to file reply on plea against landfill sites at Sonia Vihar, Ghonda Gujran

The National Green Tribunal today directed East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and other authorities to file their reply on a plea seeking cancellation of approval granted by the DDA to allot land at Sonia Vihar and Ghonda Gujran areas to set up landfill sites.

A bench headed by Acting Chairperson Justice Jawad Rahim, which had also issued notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Central Pollution Control Board, directed the corporation and others to file their response before July 21.

The green panel also said that the Supreme Court had stayed the proceedings related to the landfill sites at Ghazipur and Bhalswa and it can proceed with the matter related to Sonia Vihar and Ghonda Gujran.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed Ghonda MLA Shri Dutt Sharma and others seeking a direction to restrain the DDA from allotting an area of 130 acres at Sonia Vihar and a 50-acre plot at Ghonda Gujran to the EDMC for handling and processing waste.

The petition had said that if the project is started by the EDMC for landfill sites at the two areas, it will adversely affect the ecosystem and the overall ecology since there are several densely populated colonies nearby.

It had said the approval given on the recommendation of the Central Pollution Control Board and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute was based on wrong information and that it violated the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The petition sought a direction to the DDA to cancel the allotment of land in question falling within the active floodplain of the Yamuna.

It had also asked for a direction to the authorities to conduct a cumulative impact study to record the status of ecology and environment in the two areas.