There is fresh trouble for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which has been pulled up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for ‘violating’ previous orders prohibiting dumping of municipal solid waste in quarries.
The NGT chairperson bench on Wednesday said that the civic body had violated at least three previous orders that prohibited dumping of waste in abandoned quarries. “In spite of repeated directions, violation of the said orders continues. Let the commissioner of BBMP remain present before the tribunal on the next date to explain why coercive steps should not be taken in the matter,” noted the order delivered in the Original Application 179/2017. The next hearing is on August 8.
The BBMP had been under the scanner after using an abandoned quarry at Bagalur, on the northern outskirts of the city, as a solid waste dumping site, contrary to provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
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On January 17, the tribunal had ordered dumping to be stopped at the quarry site; a time-bound action plan to start bio-mining — which reduces quantum of waste at a site and prevents leachate accumulation — at all quarry sites; and necessary police protection to set up waste-to-energy plants, which are facing opposition from local residents. It had also ordered the BBMP to submit a concrete plan for collection, transportation and disposal of segregated solid waste in accordance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, with a time frame.
By March 9, the tribunal had observed that the BBMP has either ‘fallen in error in reading our directions or there is disdainful conduct to defy the directions’. The NGT had then fined BBMP ₹10 lakh as well as ordered submission of the compliance report within two weeks.