Gurugram firm fined ₹25 lakh for poor garbage disposal

GURUGRAM: Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, during his visit to the city on Thursday, said the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) had imposed a fine of ₹25 lakh on Ecogreen Energy, the concessionaire engaged by Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) for waste management, for failing to fulfil its responsibility in an effective, time-bound manner.

In compliance with the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) orders, the state pollution control board had issued a notice and imposed a fine of ₹25 lakh on Ecogreen on Tuesday for failing to collect waste from multiple locations across the city in violation of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).

A fresh notice reiterating the fine was issued on Thursday following the chief minister’s visit.

The notice stated that the site at Old Jail Chowk had been visited by officials of the district administration who recorded that the situation at the site had deteriorated. The company has been asked to deposit the penalty within seven days.

Despite repeated attempts, Ecogreen representatives could not be reached for comment.

“We have received complaints about poor sanitation in the past as well and have been told that the agency responsible for waste collection doesn’t pick up waste from these sites regularly. I inspected one such dumping site and found a large heap of trash. I have directed the administration to impose a fine of ₹25 lakh on the company,” said Khattar, who started his tour of the city by inspecting a dumping point at Old Jail Chowk.

Following his inspection of the dumping point, Khattar said Gurugram was an iconic city and negligence on the cleanliness front would not be tolerated.

“Gurugram is a big city. We have put in place arrangements, under which the contract for maintaining sanitation in the city on a day-to-day basis has been given. No negligence on the front of sanitation will be tolerated,” Khattar said.