Indian Express 29.07.2010
HC seeks action plan on Howrah dumping ground
Express News Service Tags : Howrah dumping ground case, kolkata Posted: Thu Jul 29 2010, 02:59 hrs
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) and West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) to prepare action plans separately on the dumping ground at Belgachia which pollutes the river Ganga. Delivering the order, a Division Bench of Justices Pianki Chandra Ghosh and Asim Kumar Roy asked the HMC and WBPCB to prepare the action plans in two weeks according to the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rule 2000.The Division Bench added that the preparation of the action plan should not be delayed as the case has been pending for a long time. Environmentalist Subash Dutta had filed a PIL in 2002, seeking the High Court’s intervention in the dumping ground at Belgachia, Howrah city.
On Wednesday Dutta pleaded that the High Court had asked the HMC to relocate the dumping ground through a 2003 order. But the HMC had failed to implement the court’s order in the last seven years, he contended.
Dutta noted that the total area of the dumping ground was a little more that 46 acres. But only about 13 acres of land was actually available now for dumping waste due to encroachments. At present, the dumping ground has become like a hill-top, with garbage floating in the open drains and contaminating the river Ganga, Dutta pointed out.
After the hearing, the Division Bench also directed the the HMC and the WBPCB to take assistance from external experts like Jadavpur University to prepare the action plan. The Division Bench observed that Ramkrishna Mission has already developed a mini-power generating plant from solid waste and that the HMC and the WBPCB might explore the idea. The HMC and WBPCB would have to prepare the action plan in two weeks and the case will come up for hearing after three weeks.
