The Supreme Court on Thursday admonished the Lieutenant Governor for the garbage piles dotting the National Capital, saying rubbish heaps at dumping sites in Delhi are all set to cross the height of Qutub Minar yet the L-G continues to claim he is “superman.”
The court’s Green Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, after hearing the Centre’s plans for a clean Capital with a fail-safe solid waste mechanism and awareness campaigns at school level, said “you promise Utopia. Nice of you to say to have school-level awareness… but when will it be possible or is it possible for you at all?”
“Where is your strategy?” Justice Lokur asked Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, representing the L-G’s office.
The Bench noted that the height of garbage has crossed three times the permitted limit. The mountain of waste at Ghaziabad was 62 metres high during the previous hearing of the court, now it is 65 metres. Qutub Minar is over 70 metres tall.
Both the offices of the L-G and the Chief Minister of Delhi filed separate affidavits in the court. Ms. Anand said it was the primary duty of the municipal bodies to clear solid waste. The L-G had the power to issue directions regarding sanitation, public health and garbage management. The court observed that the problem behind the mountains of garbage lay in the “inaction” of the authorities due to which parts of Delhi have been converted to dumping sites.
Several meetings
Ms. Anand said the L-G had been holding meetings on waste disposal every two weeks. The law officer said the L-G had convened 25 meetings on the issue. But the court was not impressed, saying there was nothing on the ground to show that any action followed.
“He says that he has all the powers like a superman. But he is not doing anything. No one from the L-G’s office attended the last meeting on waste disposal.
This is like passing the buck,” Justice Lokur observed orally.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves objected to the government’s inaction, saying “every State has done good work but the Capital is going backward.” He said rag pickers formed the backbone of the cleanliness mechanism, but they were not consulted and authorities hired their “favourite contractors.”
The court asked Ms. Anand to file a comprehensive report on the garbage problem by July 16.
