We are not your garbage collectors: SC tells Centre

‘‘We are not garbage collectors". This was the response of a distressed Supreme Court on Tuesday when the Central government submitted an 845-page affidavit on solid waste management plan.Frowning at the bulky affidavit filed by the Centre which the two judge Bench said lacked even the basic details, the court declined to take the affidavit on record and observed that the government cannot dump junk before it and there was no point in filing an affidavit if it contained "nothing".

"What are you trying to do? Are you trying to impress us? We are not impressed. You are trying to dump everything on us. We are not going to accept it," the bench told advocate Wasim A Qadri, who was appearing for the Centre.

"Do not do this. Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. We are not garbage collectors. Be absolutely clear about this," the bench said.

The scathing remarks came during a hearing on a matter related to implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 across the country.

The court directed the government to file a chart within three weeks indicating whether the states and union territories (UTs) have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provision of the 2016 rules.

It also asked the government to state in its chart the date when the advisory boards were constituted in the states and UTs, names of its chairperson and members and also details of meetings conducted by them.

At the outset, Qadri told the bench that after the apex court's December 12 order, the Centre had written to all the states and UTs on the issue and 22 states have given the details so far. He said these details have been compiled in the affidavit.

However, the bench said, "You had framed rules in 2000 but nobody (states and UTs) implemented them. Then you came out with 2016 rules but nobody seems to be interested. Are states not bound by the Union of India's advice?"

"Why do you pass these kind of rules? You withdraw these rules," the bench said.