The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has expressed its dissatisfaction over the government’s response to the problem legacy (old) waste at Brahmapuram.
The Bench comprising justice K. Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta has also warned the District Collector that he will have to face the consequences for non-compliance of the directions given by the tribunal under Section 25 of the National Green Tribunal Act 2010, for not filing reports on the legacy waste issue under the provisions of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
Asking the Kochi Corporation to implement the SWM Rules in its letter and spirit, the Bench said that the action taken by the government was not encouraging. Even though the government had taken over the legacy waste management as per the provisions of Disaster Management Act, it had to be done in a swift manner to meet the disaster caused on account of the non-disposal of the legacy waste in the dump yard, it said. The tribunal pointed out that a large extent of the 100-acre land could be utilised for profitable purposes by the corporation, if the authorities had disposed of the old waste through biomining and by ensuring proper segregation. The Bench said that the District Collector had not filed a report even after it had directed him to explain the steps taken as District Magistrate under rule 12 of the SWM Rules.
Further, he had not filed a separate report on the steps initiated to resolve the nuisance caused by the large-scale accumulation of waste without proper disposal as the officer responsible for implementing the Disaster Management Act, it said.
The Bench said that it did not plan to issue further direction as the Principal Bench in New Delhi had already taken cognisance of the issue, besides issuing directions to the Chief Secretary to take remedial measures on a war footing.
