NGT may slap fine on Haryana over legacy waste

Taking a strong note of Haryana’s inability to deal with its legacy waste problem, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the state government to take concrete measures to overcome the gap in generation and processing of waste.

Not just this, the principal bench of the NGT, headed by justice Adarsh Kumar Goel (retd), has stated that since statutory timelines have already lapsed, “environmental compensation may have to be levied” at ₹300 per MT, on the pattern of orders in such cases.

The NGT bench has, however, deferred the decision of imposing environmental compensation, in view of scheduled hearing on February 9 when Haryana chief secretary is expected to appear.

Haryana has been facing the twin challenge of dealing with the continuous flow of solid waste and the legacy waste (old municipal solid waste) which has resulted in garbage heaps at dumpsites.

Officials say Haryana has set December 2023 as the deadline to redress the problem of legacy waste, but in its latest order, the NGT wants the state authorities to expedite legacy waste remediation by preponing proposed dates.

The challenge before Haryana is to process over 100 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of legacy waste even as about 40 lakh MT has already been disposed of. A roadmap is being prepared for organic management of wet and dry waste in the state and the authorities in the districts have been advised to set up small crushers instead of big plants for processing legacy waste. About ₹262 crore will be spent on the processing the legacy waste.

“In the meanwhile, we expect the state authorities to take further remedial measures to ensure that there is no gap in generation and processing of waste and legacy waste remediation is expedited by preponing proposed dates. We have considered the (Haryana government) report and find that there is still a gap in generation and processing of fresh waste, apart from processing of legacy waste as per solid waste management rules, 2016,” reads the January 16 order after additional chief secretary of Haryana urban local bodies filed a report on January 13 listing the steps taken in compliance of earlier orders.

In his report, the ACS stated that of the 2,642 tonne waste generated in the state every day, only 2,146 tonne is being processed daily and the remaining is being discarded at dump sites. While 1.36 lakh MT, of the total 1.65 lakh MT, construction and demolition (C&D) waste recovered from the legacy waste was disposed of, 3.62 lakh MT out of the 5.27 lakh MT inert recovered from processing of legacy waste was disposed of.

“Out of the 54.18 lakh MT legacy waste (except Gurugram), approximately 31.90 lakh MT (58.87%) waste has been processed. The processing of remaining waste is likely to be completed by December 2023,” the ACS has stated in his report, admitting that some delay has occurred in bio-remediation of legacy waste because of lack of technical knowhow among staff associated with remediation work.

The state government has said that it is trying its best to manage bio-remediation of legacy waste and manage the gap in processing of fresh waste in the municipalities. The urban local bodies department has selected concessionaire for Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) cluster of Bhiwani, Sirsa and Karnal-Kaithal- Kurukshetra and has set June 30 deadline to achieve 100% processing of waste in these clusters.

Dealing with solid waste

Recently, urban local bodies minister Kamal Gupta had said that 13 clusters have been formed in the state for door-to-door collection of garbage. Under these, a legacy plant of 700 MT capacity is being operated in Sonepat and Panipat, while 1,500 MT capacity plant will be set up soon in Gurugram and Faridabad. Gupta had said that 638 MT capacity solid waste management plants are being set up in Karnal-Kaithal-Thanesar, 168 MT in Sirsa and 155 MT in Bhiwani.

Plans are afoot to set up waste management plants in Ambala-Yamunanagar, Rohtak-Bahadurgarh-Jhajjar, Hisar-Fatehabad, Jind, Rewari, Palwal-Punhana, Farukhnagar and Panchkula.

While unveiling the 2023-24 budget proposals, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the government will put in place a comprehensive solution for solid waste management (including plastic waste) in gram panchayats through a decentralised implementation model involving gram panchayats and other Panchayati Raj Institutions.

According to the NGT order, this matter has been dealt with by the Tribunal in the last five years by several orders after the issue was initially taken up for restoration of the site where garbage was unscientifically dumped at Gohana in district Sonepat.

“However, in the light of later proceedings, the Tribunal took up for consideration the steps for compliance of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, in the entire state since timelines given for various steps under the Rules had expired,” NGT has stated.