HC backs use of garbage for road-widening project

NEW DELHI: The high court on Thursday backed a joint project of NHAI and east corporation to use mounds of garbage spewing poisonous gases in Ghazipur landfill site for a road-widening project.
“You will be doing Delhi a great service,” a bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar told NHAI and asked its lawyer to take up more such construction projects near Delhi’s other overflowing landfill sites so that these can be emptied and air pollution reduced.
With the three municipal commissioners present in court in response to its earlier summons, the bench pushed for quick decisions, synergy and timelines in completing projects that hold potential to make the city air cleaner.
Appearing for East Delhi Municipal Corporation, standing counsel Gaurang Kanth informed the court that the civic agency is looking to reclaim almost 70% of its land after waste from Ghazipur site is packed off for road construction as envisaged in an MoU signed between NHAI and EDMC.
HC also grilled SDMC commissioner Punit Kumar Goel on why segregation of waste is not being pursued by civic agencies to keep landfill sites free of toxic material.
“Do you understand the meaning of residual material? It denotes whatever is left after garbage is recycled or re-used. But your landfill sites have everything because there is no segregation of waste,” the court told Goel, asking him to take steps in this regard and file an affidavit. Standing counsel Ajay Arora assured the court that a detailed affidavit will be filed. HC gave a class on new rules to segregate waste to the three commissioners and was surprised that they were not aware of the scene.
The bench asked all three commissioners to remain present in court on the next hearing with affidavits stating to what extent they have complied with its earlier direction to ensure debris from children’s parks and construction sites is removed every day.
In another key direction, the court ordered AAP government and corporations to increase capacity of their waste to energy plants so that a much larger volume of waste can be converted to electricity.