With cases of vector borne diseases like malaria rising in the national capital, the Delhi High Court today questioned the efficacy of steps the municipal corporations claimed to have taken to ensure cleanliness in the city.
"Dengue, chikungunya and malaria are on steep rise. What is the efficacy of what you have done," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said to the municipal corporations of Delhi.
As per a recent MCD report, there have been 288 cases of malaria, 180 cases of dengue, 220 of chikungunya till July 29. The increase was seen after the monsoon hit Delhi.
The Commissioners of the three corporations were also ticked off by the court for seeking exemption from appearing till date.
"There will be no exemption. They need to see the ground reality. Nobody is leaving their office to carry out inspection. We are pained at such requests. If we can set aside a large part of our day, they can be here to assist us.
"We ensure you get proper seats and you are seated while we speak to you. Nobody should have any grievance against appearing in court," the bench said wryly.
During the proceedings, it told the MCDs they cannot clean up the city without creating awareness among the people and their active participation, a view which was echoed by a court appointed expert committee which placed before it several suggestions on the issue of solid waste management in the national capital.
"This (lack of cleanliness) will continue till you strictly enforce littering rules, till you educate citizens," the bench said.
The court told the corporations that while they were making time-schedules for dropping off and collecting garbage, introducing solid waste compactors and putting up online information about its cleaning staff, they should also simultaneously educate the citizens as suggested by the panel.
The expert panel, comprising environmentalists like Sunita Narain, Almitra Patel and M C Mehta, said some of the major challenges faced in solid waste management included lack of bye-laws, non-availability of infrastructure or incentives for waste segregation and lack of public awareness.
The grim status of garbage dump sites which have exceeded their capacities, inadequate waste processing and lack of compliance and enforcement capacity were the other challenges that the panel pointed out to the court.
Apart from enforcing segregation at source like in the households and societies, the panel suggested strengthening the waste collection and processing systems, treating garbage as a resource and imposing penalties for littering as well as introducing user fees and landfill taxes.
It said that dumping of waste should be disincentivised.
The panel said the first step to be taken would be to frame bye-laws in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 and said a draft of the same would be placed before the bench before the next date of hearing on September 19.
With regard to the corporations' request for more land to put in waste processing systems, the bench told the MCDs to first look at the expert panel's plan for garbage disposal before asking for more land which was in limited quantity and "cannot be grown".
The court has been monitoring the issue of garbage removal and disposal from the city after it was told that lack of cleanliness also lead to spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue.
The issue of vector-borne diseases was raised before the court in two PILs filed by lawyers Arpit Bhargava and Gauri Grover who have sought directions to the municipal bodies and other authorities to take steps to prevent spread of dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
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