The panel has said that no responsibility was assigned for glaring mistakes that continued to harm the environment and that little progress had been made in cleaning up legacy rubbish
The chief secretary of Haryana has been ordered by the National Green Tribunal to personally assess the status of the cleanup of legacy garbage at two dump sites in the Panchkula district.The panel also criticised the actions taken by the Panchkula Municipal Corporation, claiming that no responsibility was assigned for egregious mistakes that continued to harm the environment and that little progress had been made in cleaning up legacy rubbish. A petition alleging unscientific garbage disposal at a location close to the Khol Hi-Raitan Wildlife Sanctuary in violation of environmental standards and district environmental clearance (EC) criteria was being heard by the NGT.
According to a bench led by NGT Chairperson Justice A K Goel, the tribunal requested a report on the violations from a joint committee it had established in January 2022. In November of last year, the committee acknowledged the infractions and recommended preventative and corrective actions to repair environmental harm. The tribunal ordered the municipal corporations of Panchkula and Kalka to pay compensation of Rs 9 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively, after accepting the report, according to the bench, which also included judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel.
The bench noted that, in accordance with its earlier instructions, the commissioner of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation had submitted a report dated May 2 stating that the compensation had been paid and that efforts had been made to clean up the legacy waste at the dumping grounds in Sector-23 and Jhuriwala. "We have heard counsel for the appearing parties," the bench stated during the hearings. "We find that the progress depicted in the status report can hardly be accepted as satisfactory by any standard."
"No accountability is being fixed for gross failures and continuing damage to the environment and public health, and there is practically no progress in the remediation of legacy waste," it said.
The bench further stated that it is unexpected that Ambala is receiving waste from the municipalities of Panchkula and Kalka, since this cannot be sustained over the long term and may result in poor management.
"Reclaimed land at Jhuriwala or Sector 23 should be utilised for dense plantation as directed by the tribunal... Situation needs to be handled in mission mode in view of the continuing failures so far," it said.
The tribunal claimed that the panel had failed to accomplish even the bare minimum, noting that the joint committee had only convened twice in the previous six months and had made no real progress.
"We, thus, direct the chief secretary, Haryana, to review the progress personally to bring about an effective road map in the interest of the environment and public health," the bench said.
Additionally, it requested that within two months of receiving the chief secretary's permission, an action taken report detailing concrete advancements in the remediation of legacy waste, including the operation of the waste-to-energy plant, be filed. A follow-up hearing has been scheduled for August 7.