Sangli Zilha Sudhar Samiti vs Commissioner And Ors

Applicant- Sangli Zilha Sudhar Samiti, has preferred this Application under the provisions of Ss.14 and 15 read with S.18(1) of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, seeking intervention of this Tribunal to address serious issues of unscientific dumping of garbage and solid waste; and associated environmental degradation, by the Respondent No.1 i.e. Sangli Miraj and Kupwad Municipal Corporation (SMKMC). The Applicant alleges that Respondent No.1 Corporation, which is generating substantial quantity of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is dumping garbage and solid waste that also includes plastic waste, at Gut Nos. 131 and 121, Miraj Bedag Road village Waddi and Gut Nos. 207/A/B/C & 208 of Samdoli road. It is further alleged that Respondent No.1 is also regularly burning such solid waste thereby resulting into air pollution and environmental degradation. The Applicant alleges that such unscientific disposal of solid waste by the Corporation is in contravention of the Municipal Solid (Management and Handling) Waste Rules, 2000 and the Plastic Waste Rules,2011 and also, further causes significant environmental degradation particularly; air and water pollution adversely affecting the health of local residents. The Applicant has further alleged that in spite of directions of Hon'ble High Court of Mumbai in Writ Petition No.1740 of 1998, through draft minutes of the order and also subsequent directions by Respondent No.3 i.e. the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the Corporation has not acted sincerely and efficiently to tackle the problem of MSW management, and has been engaged in unscientific dumping of waste at both the above referred sites. The Applicant has therefore, prayed for following:

a) That direction may kindly be given to the Respondent No.1 that while removing the garbage hills from the above-mentioned site proper plan shall be made so that people residing nearby shall not get affected by such site.

b) The Respondent may kindly be directed to submit report regarding the Contractor to whom the MSW management is assigned to and about his performance audit.

c) The direction may be given to the Respondent No.1 that the proper segregation at source, proper processing of solid waste, proper amenities including compound wall, entrance and exit gates, internal roads, safety measures be provided at an earliest to protect the health and hygiene of the people at Sangli, Miraj and Kupwad Municipal Corporation and people residing nearby dumping spot.

d) Direction may kindly be issued to Respondent No.1 and 2 to address the 'odour nuisance' issue on urgent basis. Proper plan of action to stop the said 'odour nuisance' may Kinley be asked to be submitted.

e) That direction may kindly be given to Respondent No1 that the increasing number of furious & stray dogs as a result of mismanagement of solid waste should be controlled by proper methods. So that residents will not be hurt by such furious dogs.

f) The Respondent No.1 may kindly be asked to submit report regarding how many cases of Dog bites reported and registered in and around the said dumping ground.

g) The Respondent No.1 may be directed take Strong legal action against the businessmen and users of banned plastic carry bags as it is very essential for the segregation of plastic carry bags at source and its further processing.

h) Respondent No.1 may kindly be asked as to what and how many actions taken of various business establishments for use of banned plastic carry bags. Report may also be called for as to how many persons or industries are engaged in such illegal plastic bags business, manufacturing. The report shall also mention as to how many and what legal actions have been taken against such business establishments.

i) The Respondent No.1 and 2 may be directed to ban other plastic carry bags also in corporation area until proper segregation and processing unit is established.

j) Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 shall be directed to be strictly enforced the provisions of the said rules relating to use, collection, segregation, transportation and disposal of plastic waste.

k) Directions may kindly be given to work out and set up systems for the use of plastic waste in road construction and/or in co-incineration plans for generation of energy in accordance with law.

l) Directions may be issued to the Respondents that there shall be no unregulated open burning of plastic/rubber or such other articles anywhere in any of the Corporation areas in Maharashtra.

m) Respondent No.2 may kindly be directed to survey of health problems of the residents Bdeak, Samdoli-Miraj-Kupwad with the help of expert medical practitioners from the Civil Hospital.

n) The Respondent No.1 may be directed to install proper and good conditioned community bins along with the cover on it at every 100 meters distance.

All the Respondents have filed their appearance and have also filed their replies. MPCB which is regulatory authority implementing MSW Rules, filed an affidavit on 21st January, 2015 and submitted that Respondent No.1 is generating about 180 Tons of MSW per day. It is submitted that the Board granted authorization under the Municipal Solid Waste Rules to set up and operate waste processing/disposal facility at Samdoli, in the year 2003, which has been renewed from time to time. However, the Board is forthright in submission that Respondent No.1 has failed to set up a scientific waste processing/treatment plant within the stipulated time and even, no concrete disposal for setting up of such plant has been submitted. The Board also submitted that in the field visits and investigations carried out by their officers from time to time, the MSW was found to be dumped in unscientific and haphazard manner in contravention of the provisions of the said Rules. The Board has categorically submitted that in spite of several communications and directions issued to the Corporation, there has been no compliance and the waste is continued to be dumped at Samdoli and Bedag sites in contravention with MSW Rules. The Board has also issued certain final directions, subsequent to the orders of Hon'ble High Court, but in spite of such directions and efforts taken by the Board, there is no compliance.

Respondent No.1, SMKMC has not contradicted the findings of MPCB. However, it has come out with the case that they are taking all sincere efforts for segregation of waste and have also gone ahead with developing a proposal in compliance with the MSW Rules for scientific handling and management of MSW generated in the city area. Unfortunately, the affidavit filed on 3rd February, 2015, is devoid of concrete proposal for such MSW management.

In view of such submissions and developments and considering fact position, we had ordered the Municipal Corporation to submit concrete proposal. On failure of the same, the Tribunal, on 25.3.2015, had directed Respondent No.1-SMKMC to deposit amount of Rs.60Crore, which would be deposited in the Escrow Account of the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Pune division for implementation of such proposal. A Committing consisting of the Divisional Commissioner, the Member Secretary, MPCB and the Collector, Sangli, was constituted along with the Municipal Commissioner- SMKMC to devise a suitable proposal in this regard. This order of the Tribunal was assailed before the Hon'ble Apex Court. However, Hon'ble Apex Court has dismissed the SLP and thereby, the orders of the Tribunal have attained finality. Accordingly, learned DGP appearing for Respondent No.1 submitted that they have deposited more than Rs.40 Crore with the Divisional Commissioner, for this purpose.

Subsequently, considering difficulties expressed by Respondent No.1 to develop scientific proposal for MSW management with techno economic feasibility, mainly due to non-availability of expertise with Respondent No.1, a Committee was constituted consisting of Experts from IIT, Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli and Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune.

After much persuasion and follow up of the Tribunal, the Corporation, with aid and assistance of the Committee, has now finalized detail proposal which is claimed to be a techno-economic feasible solution for sound and scientific MSW management for SMKMC. The proposal was also shared with the Applicant and MPCB, who have given their critical views which have been incorporated by the Corporation in the future proposal. We have heard one of the Experts Priti Mastakar, who has elaborately explained that initial proposal of the Corporation, which was costing more than Rs. 75 Crore have been suitably revised by the Committee with substantial reduction in cost while ensuring that technology and operational practices adopted for the proposed project are sustainable in nature and will provide a techno-economic feasible solution in order to comply with the MSW rules. She also submits that the expert committee has gone into technical and financial details of the MSW management and has taken a unanimous decision as regards the technology aspects of the project, which is now based on composting and resource recovery principle rather than waste to energy (incineration) project as envisaged earlier. Learned DGP appearing for SMKMC submits that the recommendations of the expert committee has been duly considered and approved by the SMKMC. MPCB has also given it's in principle approval for such proposal.

We have gone through entire documents and pleadings of the parties and bestowed our consideration on the various issues involved in the present dispute. The only substantial issue involved in the matter is regarding early execution of the MSW processing plant to comply with legal action. We have taken a judicial note that new solid waste Rules, 2016, have now been promulgated and the proposal to set up the waste processing plant needs to comply with these Rules.

The Twin cities of Sangli and Miraj are growing cities and it is essential for any such growing city to have a sound and sustainable MSW management plant, at the earliest.

Learned Counsel appearing for the Applicant, Mr. Asim Sarode submitted that the Applicant does not have any serious objection for the proposal and action plan submitted by Respondent No.1 which is prepared by a committee of experts. However, he raised two apprehensions regarding ;

(1) adherence to given time limits assured in the time bound action plan and (2) exaggerated cost shown against certain items, which generally are available at very discounted price in the market. We have taken a serious note of both these apprehensions particularly, later one. However, this Tribunal is not inclined to enter into issues related cost of project components and the Applicant is at liberty to approach the competent authorities to raise their grievances on cost escalation and exaggeration. We hope that the competent authority, including the Municipal Commissioner of Corporation will take a necessary note of such grievances if informed to them. As regards to effective implementation of action plan, all learned Counsel appearing for the Corporation, MPCB and the Applicant are unanimous that such time bound implementation of action plan will be essential to ameliorate problems of MSW management. They also sought specific directions of the Tribunal in this regard and also suggested formation of monitoring Committee. Learned DGP also submits that the necessary funds for the project are already secured and available in Escrow Account and therefore, the main constraint on execution of project is already taken care of.

Learned DGP appearing for Respondent No.1 submits time bound action plan (Marked-'x' in file) which has eleven (11) components/activities which will be carried out from December, 2016 up to March 2018. We generally do not find much issues with such planning and therefore, agree for such time bound action plan with a rider that amongst all these activities particularly activity Nos. 3,4,5,8 and 9, can simultaneously start without any time lag, particularly, composting activity as well as construction of SLF and remediation of old waste dumps need to be taken in in the first stage of the project. The action plan shows that entire project will be complete by March, 2018. We hope that with such re-arrangement as proposed above, the project can well be fully commissioned by December, 2017.

Based on above discussions, we are inclined to dispose of this Application with following directions:

1) The solid waste processing and disposal action plan as submitted by the Corporation, shall be executed and commissioned preferably by December, 2017, but in any case, not later than March, 2018.

2) The amount so far deposited by Respondent No.1 with the Divisional Commissioner, stands released, but the same shall be kept in Escrow Account with the Municipal Commissioner;

SMKMC and the amount shall be spent exclusively on execution and commissioning of proposed action plan for MSW management. Any balance amount after execution and commission of the project, shall be spent on other environmental projects like augmentation the sewage treatment capacity, operation of STP and installation of bio-methanation plants etc.

3) We appoint a high level project monitoring Committee comprising of the Divisional Commissioner, Pune; the Collector, Sangli; the Municipal Commissioner SMKMC, Head of solid waste division of MPCB, and one concerned faculty from Walchand College of Engineering. The committee shall be the overall authority for ensuring time-bound execution and commissioning of the proposed plan to the desired standards and also to ensure the compliance of various directions contained in this judgment; and for that purpose, the committee shall meet at least once in two months to review the progress of action plan and submit report to the Tribunal.

4) MPCB shall conduct regular inspection of both the existing waste disposal sites at Bedog and Samdoli road, least once in a month and carry out necessary monitoring to ensure that there is no environmental degradation caused due to activities of MSW management.

5) The Corporation and MPCB shall ensure that those residential/commercial constructions with more than 20,000 sq.m built-up area and have obtained Environmental Clearance shall have their own STP and MSW management plant, in compliance with conditions of EC.

6) The Corporation shall ensure that the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 are adhered to 'stricto senso' and shall ensure that segregation of waste is effectively ensured.

7) The Corporation shall take all necessary steps to segregate C&D waste and ensure that C&D waste is disposed in terms of the C&D Waste Rules, 2016. In case, any builder/developer or any other person is found to be dumping C&D waste in biodegradable waste collection system, the said builder/developer or person shall be liable to pay environmental compensation cost of Rs. 50,000/- to the corporation and the said amount shall be used for waste management of city.

8) All the major sources of bio-degradable solid waste like hotels, restaurants, slaughterhouse, vegetable markets, marriage/function halls etc. shall segregate their waste and hand it over separately to the Corporation for further treatment, including bio-methanation, if required, in de-centralised manner. In case of their failure to do so, they are liable to pay environmental compensation cost of Rs. 5,000 (Rs. Five thousand) per incidence of non-compliance to the Corporation, and said amount shall be used by the Corporation exclusively for the waste management activities.

9) The Corporation shall ensure that there shall not be any open burning of solid waste within city premises and in case, anyone including any organization, is found to be indulging in open burning of solid waste, they shall be liable to pay environmental compensation cost of minimum Rs.5,000/-, which shall levied by the Corporation and use the same for environmental awareness purposes.

10) Respondent No.1 SMKMC shall take all necessary measures to ensure that there is no incident of fire at the existing duping site and shall keep record of such incidents, if any, and submit the same along with action taken report before the Monitoring Committee.

11) Respondent No.1 SMKMC is directed to strictly comply with the directions given by the National Green Tribunal (Principal Bench) New Delhi in Original Application No.199 of 2014 (Mrs Almitra H. Patel & Anr Vs Union of India & Ors) decided on 22th December, 2016.

Before parting with the judgment, we would like to appreciate the positive approach taken by the Corporation and its learned Advocate Mrs. Ujjawala Pawar, DGP as well as Mr. Asim Sarode, learned Counsel appearing for the Applicant in adjudicating the matter and we hope that the directions will be complied with in letter and spirit for betterment of environment of SMKMC area.