U'khand moves SC, seeks vacation of order staying construction activities

The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking vacation of its order staying construction in some states and union territories saying it was facing a "crisis situation" due to artificial lake formation in Tehri Garhwal area after huge landslides.

It told the court that it has framed a revised policy and this would be placed before the cabinet for approval.

The apex court had slapped a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the Uttarakhand government on August 31 for not framing the state policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The state told a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that due to the apex court's order, construction activities have stopped at a time when the state was facing crisis due to rains and landslides.

The counsel, appearing for Uttarakhand, told the bench that due to landslides, an artificial lake has been formed in the state and stay on construction activities should be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken as lives of people were at risk due to this.

The matter was mentioned before the bench which said it would hear the issue tomorrow.

The state's counsel told the apex court that they have prepared a revised policy as per the 2016 Rules and it has been cleared by the ministry concerned.

"We have prepared the policy. We are facing landslides and an artificial lake have been formed," the counsel said.

On August 31, the top court had castigated some states and union territories for their "pathetic" attitude in not framing the policy on solid waste management as per the 2016 Rules and had stayed further constructions there till they brought it out.

The court had said it was "unfortunate" that states and Union Territories, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh, had not yet framed any policy under the 2016 Solid Waste Management Rules, even after two years.

The issue of waste management had cropped up when the court was dealing with a tragic incident of 2015 in which it had taken cognisance of the death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue in Delhi.

The victim was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals here and his distraught parents had subsequently committed suicide.

The apex court had earlier taken strong note of non-implementation of solid waste management rules in the country and had observed that "India will one day go down under the garbage".