Waste management bye-laws pending approval of LG: HC told

The AAP government today told the Delhi High Court that the solid waste management bye-laws, framed on its directions, are pending approval of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) for being notified.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, thereafter, listed the matter for hearing on November 15 to await notification of the bye-laws.
The high court had on September 19 accepted the draft bye-laws, framed jointly by local authorities and environmental experts, which called for introduction of user fees for municipal services among other things.
Besides introducing user fees for municipal services, the bye-laws also provide for enforcing segregation of waste at source such as in the households and housing societies, strengthening of waste collection, storage, transportation and processing systems and imposing of penalties for littering or violating the rules.

Under the bye-laws, the fees and penalties will see a five per cent per annum increase.
The court had ordered framing of the draft bye-laws after environmental experts like Sunita Narain, Almitra Patel and M C Mehta, had claimed that a major challenge faced in solid waste management was lack of such provisions.
The court was looking into the issue of solid waste management as it was of the view that garbage and lack of cleanliness contributed to spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.
The view was expressed by the court during the hearing of two PILs by lawyers Arpit Bhargava and Gauri Grover who had sought directions to municipal bodies and other authorities to take steps to prevent the spread of dengue, chikungunya and malaria.