The Delhi High Court today stayed till February 25 the closure of a south Delhi bio-medical waste treatment plant, which is allegedly adversely effecting the health of residents of a nearby colony.
"You (residents) file an affidavit before February 25. We will stay the contempt proceedings and the order till that time," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said while staying single judge order of December 12, 2014 on a contempt plea filed by the residents of Sukhdev Vihar here.
The division bench gave the interim relief on the pleas of government and Synergy Waste Management Pvt Ltd, the company which established the bio-medical waste plant, after the Delhi government sought more time to shift it.
Earlier, the single bench judge had ordered immediate shutting down of the plant while hearing a contempt plea filed by the residents of Sukhdev Vihar who had contended that on January 15, 2013, the court had directed the Delhi government and the company to shift within six months the plant but the order was not complied with.
The plant barely situated 30 metres from Sukhdev Vihar and other colonies, thus violating a basic Central Pollution Control Board norm, is a threat to the health and life to the 10 lakh population living near it, residents had claimed.
The company, which established the plant, said that the alternative site given by the government is not suitable and therefore the time limit for shifting it be extended till May 18, upto which the contract between it and government is valid.
They further contended that the local commissioner in his report in March 2009 had said that the site given was not suitable as there were 66 residential staff quarters, an MCD primary school with 400 children and a cooking gas pipeline near the area.
