All big hospitals, shopping centres, and theatres in Saket on Tuesday came under the scanner of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which asked the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to issue a challan of Rs. 50,000 a day to each of those under the polluter pays principle.
The NGT was displeased over the lack of responsibility by these ventures towards environment as those allow waste to pile up outside their premises.
SDMC’s legal officer Laveena Passi told the tribunal that in pursuance of its earlier directions, the civic agency had removed the waste from the sites, but it piles up again.
The tribunal asked the SDMC to issue to those all a challan of Rs. 50,000 and also initiate penal action against those.
The Bench also said that the hospitals, malls and cinema halls cannot only earn money, and that it should be part of their corporate responsibility towards environment to handle and dispose of the waste efficiently.
SDMC’s counsel Balendu Shekhar told the Bench that the waste collected outside these big ventures does not only create health issues and environment problems, but also leads to traffic jams in the area.
Mr. Shekhar said that there were Max Hospital, Saket City Hospital; malls, including Select City walk, MGF Metropolitan Mall; shops; and cineplexes like PVR which are all equally responsible for the generation of waste.
NGT directs SDMC
to issue a challan of Rs. 50,000 a day to each hospital, shopping centre
and theatre under
the polluter pays principle
