With the capital's solid waste generation currently standing at 9,000 tonnes every day, the inaction of the Delhi government in identifying and acquiring alternate site for a landfill has irked the Delhi High Court. It expressed strong displeasure Thursday, saying the city was "sitting on a stink bomb".
"There has been little or no progress even after our April order. Garbage are piling up in the city, but there is little action," said Justice G.S. Sistani, adding that Delhi's three waste dumpyards had already reached their saturation point.
The court also slammed the Delhi land and building fepartment (DLBD) which tried to justify the slow pace in acquiring alternate landfill sites, saying urgent acquisition can be made only in case of a natural calamity.
"You are sitting on a stinking bomb. The area is rising with solid waste, what else is a natural calamity?" the court said.
During the hearing, Delhi Development Agency's counsel Rajiv Bansal informed the court that the land owning agency has handed over possession of six new sites - Shastri Park (1.98 acres), East Vinod Nagar (2.87 acres), Tikri Kalan (3.95 acres), Dwarka Sector 24 (4.84 acres), Dwarka Sector 29 (4.94 acres), and village Rani Khera (3.55 acres) to the city's civic agencies on June 16.
However, Municipal Corporation of Delhi's counsel Maninder Acharya said that none of above six sites were suitable for setting up a solid waste processing plant as it require at least 75 acres of land.
Later, the court directed the DLBD and DDA to submit as to how they propose to use the six sites. It also asked the agencies to submit a status report on the acquisition of seven large areas which were identified earlier by a court-appointed committee as probable landfill sites.
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The court appointed committee comprising of senior officer each of the DDA, DLBD, ministry of environment and forest, Delhi government and the central government had identified 31 sites but selected the seven sites as the ones which are most easy to acquire.
Acharya had said the acquisition process of the sites found suitable for dumping the garbage should be initiated, processed and completed by the DDA in a time-bound manner.
Some of the seven sites identified for dumping the garbage are near Madanpur Khader (50 acres), near Sonia Vihar (50 acres), near Puthkhurd, behind APMC Compost plant on G.T. Karnal road (27.5 acres), Palla and Haryana border (62.5 acres), village Sadpur and Zizampur (100 acres).