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.