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Judgment
Proceedings in this matter have been taken up in the light of captioned media report to the effect that seven persons have been charred to death in the fire at a garbage dump site at Tajpur Road in Ludhiana. Most of the deceased belong to the rag picker family who were living near the site for the last ten years. Deceased have been identified as Suresh, aged 55, his wife Rona Rani aged 50, and their children Rakhi aged 15, Manisha aged 10, Chandini aged 5, Geeta aged 6 and Sunny aged 2. There is a huge dump of 20 lakhs tons.
In view of the media report, there appears to be failure of the Authorities of State of Punjab in remediating the garbage dump site, as per mandate under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and right of citizens to clean environment. This Tribunal has passed orders for compliance of Rules within the stipulated timelines in O.A. No. 606/2018, Compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, particularly orders dated 07.03.2019 and 10.01.2020, passed in the presence of Chief Secretary, Punjab. Not clearing the legacy waste is continuing health hazard, apart from being source of pollution.
Having regard to the above, we issue notice to the Chief Secretary, Punjab to explain the reasons for such continued failure, to the prejudice of public health and environment and why accountability of the State be not fixed under section 15 of the NGT Act for such continuing failure inspite of repeated orders of this Tribunal. Response may be filed before the next date which may give a comprehensive plan to handle such situations at all locations where legacy waste is lying unremediated with potential for such incidents and continuing damage to environment and public health and plan for solution with timelines, keeping in mind past directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court, statutory Rules and orders of this Tribunal.
We also request the Monitoring Committee, constituted by this Tribunal to monitor compliance of certain orders of this Tribunal in Punjab, headed by Justice Jasbir Singh, former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to furnish a factual situation with regard to cause of death, persons responsible for failure, remedial action, including measure to prevent such incidents in future. The Monitoring Committee may undertake visit to the site and interact with stake holders. The Committee will also be assisted by CPCB, State PCB and District Magistrate. The report may be furnished preferably within 15 days by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/ OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF. A copy of the report be also given to the Chief Secretary, Punjab, to enable his response.
We also direct CPCB to collect information about garbage dumpsites from all States/UTs in respect of atleast Metro cities and issue statutory directions/guidelines for preventing such fires and handling them effectively if they take place, specifying serious consequences of delay in dealing with the issue, in violation of binding rules.
A copy of this order be forwarded to Justice Jasbir Singh former Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Secretary, Punjab, CPCB, State PCB and District Magistrate, Ludhiana, by email.
List for further consideration on 26.05.2022.