Urban News

Another site proposed for the setting up of a common municipal solid waste management facility (garbage dumping ground) at Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri villages on Mohali’s outskirts has been rejected by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment.

However, the SEAC’s site rejection report is yet to be considered by the Union Environment Ministry’s statutory body State-level Authority of Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA), which is presently defunct in the absence of its chairman and member.

Till the final decision is taken on the fate of 58.79-acre site already acquired by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered to select a new alternate site to free Mohali’s densely inhabited Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, from a garbage dump, which Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had already ordered to relocate till June 2009 but to no avail.

For the selection of an alternate site, the High Court has asked Punjab Chief Secretary to constitute a committee, comprising competent officials of all departments concerned. Confirming the development, GMADA Chief Administrator Vivek Partap Singh told Newsline that as soon as the committee is formed, hunt for new alternate site will begin.

“We have also challenged the SEAC’s technical report rejecting the site before the SAEIA,” said he, while revealing that two representatives of the SEAC were part of the committee, which had selected the site in question.

Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) Member Secretary Dr Babu Ram, who is also Member Secretary to SAEIA, said he has written to the Union Ministry of Environment to nominate the chairman and member of SAEIA to make it functional. “Till then, no such matter could be decided,” he confirmed, while adding that SEAC’s recommendation is examined from all aspects before SAEIA takes final decision. 

Not first
It was not the first site, which is likely to be dumped for Mohali’s garbage dumping ground. In September last, GMADA had dumped 76 acres site in Sector 102-A (earmarked in Master Plan) while declaring it “inappropriate”. While acquisition proceedings were still underway for Sector 102-A site before it was rejected, the present site in Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri has already been acquired with only land acquisition award to be announced. “We had withheld the award awaiting final nod otherwise the money once disbursed would have also gone down the drain,” said GMADA CA.

Before almost 80 tonnes of solid waste daily generated from Mohali’s 2.5 lakh population was started dumping in Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, here, dumping ground was shifted from near Verka Milk Plant, Jagatpura and Mauli Baidwan villages following public protests.

Dispute
While Residential Welfare Society of the PSIEC Housing Complex has been fighting a legal battle to get dumping ground shifted from Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, the elected public representatives and residents of 28 villages around new site are up in arms against dumping of estimated 200 tonnes of untreated garbage and solid waste daily generated from Mohali for next 20 years in Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri villages. Before selecting present site, several other sites in Phase I, VI, Sector 70 and elsewhere in Mohali were dumped following strong public protest.