Waste management: NGT slams DSIIDC over Ranikhera site

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has restrained the DSIIDC from carrying out any construction on land at Ranikhera near the Delhi-Haryana border, which was earmarked for dumping waste but was not used till now.
NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar slammed the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) for giving priority to industrial activity at the site and said no one was willing to provide a solution to the problem of waste generation in the city.
"People are dying. There is no place to dump municipal solid waste. You will not put a single brick at this site. You call your managing director," the tribunal bench observed.

The observation came after the counsel appearing for the DSIIDC informed the panel that it was planning to set up a multi-storey non-polluting industrial unit at the site and expressed inability to give land for setting up a landfill site.
The matter will now be heard on December 6.
The tribunal, which is looking into the issue of alternative landfill sites, had earlier ordered inspection of land at Ranikhera.

It had directed the officers of the Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Jal Board, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and DSIIDC to visit the site and apprise the tribunal about the status of the land.

The direction came while hearing a plea for setting up of additional landfill sites at all available locations which can be used for waste management.
After the recent Ghazipur landfill collapse, the tribunal was working on alternative sites for dumping of waste, including the 50-acre site in Ranikhera located on the Delhi- Haryana border.
The site was identified at least two years ago, but waste disposal couldn't begin because of the differences between the authorities.
The landfill sites at Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla are already over-saturated.
The green panel had earlier slammed the Delhi government and the municipal corporations here over dumps of waste overflowing from various landfill sites in the city and sought a status report from them.

It had last year constituted a committee to look into the working of waste-to-energy plants in the national capital.
It had also asked Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to approach the Delhi government to provide more landfill sites in the city and maintain them strictly in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016.