Garbage mess: NGT warrant to 4 station masters for ‘no show’

The National Green Tribunal has issued bailable warrants against station masters of four railway stations here for their no show despite notices to them in a case of mass generation of waste.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued the warrants against Shahdara, Vivek Vihar, Anand Vihar and Shakurbasti railway station masters in the city.

“Nobody is present on behalf of any of the railway stations... Consequently, we issue bailable warrant against superintendent/station Master in the sum of Rs 25,000 to the satisfaction of the arresting officer... for their production before the tribunal. The bailable warrant shall be executed by the SHO of the area concerned,” the bench said.

The green court directed all the municipal corporations to file affidavits stating how they propose to deal with the dumping sites under their jurisdiction and any “proposed” action for construction of waste-to-energy plants to deal with municipal solid waste in Delhi.

“The NCT, Delhi and all the corporations are directed to give the exact quantum of waste being generated in Delhi,” the bench said, in a recent order.

The tribunal had earlier constituted a committee to inspect major waste generators in the city, including 5-star hotels, malls, hospitals, educational institutions with hostels and housing societies.

Noting that the problem of waste generation was being faced by the entire country and urgent steps were needed to be taken without “demur and default”, the green panel had directed the Delhi government to provide a list of all such establishments to be inspected by the committee.

The NGT had earlier noted that Delhi generated nearly 14,100 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste every day and said that the mass generators of waste could not be equated to a simple household.

It had expressed concern that government agencies were lacking infrastructure and appropriate technical capacity to handle such huge quantity of waste.