NGT raps HP pollution board over waste mgmt
: The National Green Tribunal has taken serious note of the dumping of trash at the hillside in Koksar, a hamlet located 10,301 ft above sea level in the Lahaul and Spiti district, which remains frozen for seven months a year.
The green tribunal observed that the Himachal Pradesh Pollution Control Board took no action to improve waste management in Koksar. The board had submitted a report to the NGT, and the central pollution board during the hearing submitted that effective steps would be taken to remediate the problem within four weeks.
The Green Tribunal directed
Lahaul and Spiti deputy commissioner and the gram panchayat to also file their responses within four weeks.
Further, the green tribunal directed the central board and HPSPCB to file an action-taken report on the issue.
The court has said the actiontaken report must contain details on all issues raised by the applicant, as also noted in the order, inter alia, on whether the carrying capacity has been determined for Koksar, whether bylaws for solid waste management have been framed by the gram panchayat and whether Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, were implemented.
Advocate Akash Vashishtha represented the applicant, FRIENDS, a non-governmental organisation operating in various parts of the country. “The construction of landfill on the hill shall be avoided. A transfer station at a suitable enclosed location shall be set up to collect residual waste from the processing facility and inert waste. A suitable land shall be identified in the plain areas down the hill within 25 km for setting up a sanitary landfill. The residual waste from the transfer station shall be disposed of at this sanitary landfill,” the petition said.
The petitioner had demanded that local bodies frame bylaws and prohibit a citizen from littering waste, have local bodies empowered to levy solid waste management charges from the tourists at the entry point, have a ban on carrying plastic.