NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court against the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order of constituting a panel under Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena to monitor the capital’s solid waste management.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also imposed a fine of Rs 2,232 crore in February 2023 on the Delhi government for causing damage to the environment due to improper solid and liquid waste management.
Taking note of the fact that the data provided by the government on solid and liquid waste management was “incomplete”, the bench said, “On the pattern of the compensation awarded in respect of other states (at the rate of Rs 2 crore per million litres per day of untreated sewage and Rs 300 per tonne of untreated legacy waste), compensation of Rs 3,132 crore is liable to be levied on the government.”
The bench further added, “Deducting the compensation for solid waste already levied on the government (Rs 900 crore), the remaining amount of Rs 2,232 crore has to be paid by the government on the polluter pays principle.”
The tribunal further noted that monitoring was needed to be done by the highest level of the Delhi government as the situation pertaining to non-compliance of municipal solid waste (MSW) rules remained “unsolved” irrespective of the same being monitored by the Supreme Court for 18 years and tribunal for nine years.
The bench tasked the committee to deal with issues such as managing solid waste, setting up new waste processing facilities, augmenting existing waste processing facilities and reducing legacy waste. The tribunal appointed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar as the convener of the committee led by VK Saxena.
Other members included Secretaries of various Delhi government and central ministries, the DDA vice-chairperson, the director general of the Forest department, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) chairperson, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner, District Magistrates and area DCPs.
