NGT disposes plea against landfill sites at Sonia Vihar, Ghonda Gujran

The National Green Tribunal has refused to entertain 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 Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, which had earlier issued notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Delhi Development Authority (DDA), said there was no substantial question of environment.

"Allegation in this letter, which has been treated as an application, is that solid waste processing plant at Ghonda Gujran is causing pollution. In absence of adequate material in support of the allegation, we are unable to hold the issue to be a substantial question of environment to be taken by the Tribunal suo motu," the bench said.

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 had 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.