The Maradu municipal authorities have informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that the removal of apartment demolition debris has been completed.
The Secretary of the civic body has submitted a report before the Southern Bench of the tribunal stating that service providers have completed the removal of debris as the per the agreement. The municipality has issued completion certificates to them. The Bench had earlier taken suo motu notice of the delay in the removal of debris. It had asked the civic body and the State Pollution Control Board to remove the waste, especially concrete and steel waste that fell into the Vembanad lake following the demolition of the Alfa Serene apartment, without delay.
The Pollution Control Board had earlier informed the tribunal that the Secretary had not submitted periodical reports, action plans and data on removal and disposal of steel and concrete debris from the demolition sites. It had also suggested imposing environmental compensation on the municipality for its failure to comply with directives. However, the board had pointed out that there was no guidelines available for calculating the environment compensation in such a case. It had requested the Central Pollution Control Board to prescribe the necessary guidelines.
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The Secretary of the civic body said in his report that the shortfalls/violations committed by the municipality, if any, on complying with the specific provisions of the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016, will be addressed accordingly. About 69,600 tonnes of waste were removed from various sites, he said. A detailed action plan was submitted before the chairman of the board before the start of the debris removal, he said.
The board authorities here clarified that the debris removal has been completed. “However, we are yet to receive an action plan from the civic officials elaborating the disposal process of waste,,” they said.