The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday directed the Chief Secretary of Haryana to deposit a sum of Rs 100 crore towards environmental compensation for continuing damage to the environment.
The bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also constituted a nine-member committee, to be headed by the Chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB).
The Committee may appraise the performance of the contractor engaged as per the Concession Agreement and if it is found that the contractor has failed to perform as expected, the Committee may make suitable alternative arrangements to replace the contractor, as previously observed by the Tribunal.
The Tribunal noted that the matters related to the same issue, i.e., the failure to maintain environmental norms for handling and disposing of legacy municipal solid waste dump sites to the prejudice of the environment and public health and also adjoining forest areas.
The dump site in question is Gurugram’s Bandhwari landfill, where approximately 33 million metric tonnes of solid waste has been dumped over the years.
The Tribunal was hearing a matter stating that a waste management project has been developed and a contract was assigned to a Chinese company—Eco-green Energy Private Limited in the year 2017.
However, the steps taken are inadequate.
The waste is being burnt, causing huge air pollution, which has the potential to affect not only the inhabitants but also the Asola Bhati Wildlife Sanctuary, which has 193 species of birds, a large number of medicinal plants, more than 80 species of butterflies, black buck, golder jackal, and leopards.
The NGT further said that the Bandhwari site may be utilised for setting up waste processing facilities to handle the waste generation of the local bodies in question. Alternative arrangements should be explored.