The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Bench, on Monday refused
to entertain a plea from the Pallavaram Municipality to allow it to dump
garbage in the Pallavaram ‘Periya Eri’ till the establishment of a
solid waste management facility at an alternative site is completed.

The
bench ordered the filing of a status report on the alternative
arrangements being made by the authority to consider any action in the
issue.

When the matter came up for hearing before the bench of
judicial member Justice M Chockalingam and expert member Prof R
Nagendran, N R Chandran, senior counsel representing the municipality,
said that consent had been obtained to establish a solid waste
management facility at a site in Venkatamangalam. However, the process
of setting up the facility would take at least six months.

The
counsel, therefore, pleaded that the tribunal allow the municipality to
use the lake for dumping waste till the alternative site was ready.

However,
the lawyer for the petitioner who moved the tribunal against the
dumping, vehemently opposed the municipality’s plea, stating that it
would wreak further havoc on the lake, a major portion of which had
already been destroyed because of the dumping.

Following the
arguments, Justice Chockalingam said that while the apprehension of the
petitioner was understandable, the position of the municipality required
consideration given the fact that non-clearance of garbage for want of a
dumping facility would cause difficulty to the public at large.

However,
he said, given the fact that the alternative arrangements being made
were still only on paper, the tribunal would take stock of the progress
in the establishment of the new site before taking a view on the plea.

The
bench then ordered the municipality to file a status report on the
matter before the next hearing on May 17 and clearly stated that the
interim order banning garbage dumping was still in force.