Hearing on a public interest litigation regarding lack of garbage disposal from prominent public places in Haldwani-Kathgodam and littering, the High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the municipal corporation of Haldwani and the State Government to clarify the situation by June 30.
According to the case details, Haldwani resident Pankaj Negi had filed a PIl in the high court stating that garbage is littered around on the major public places in Haldwani and Kathgodam.
He said that this state of affairs is due to the mismanagement of the municipal corporation even though the court had passed orders for waste management in the past. Proper arrangements for waste management have not been made here due to the negligence of the authorities. The petition further states that the past orders of the courts have been violated. It was also stated that under the Swachchh Bharat Mission, Haldwani was ranked very low at the 395th position out of 431 towns for its level of sanitation. The petitioner has stated that garbage is strewn around in the three main municipal wards of Subhashnagar, Rajpur and Jawaharnagar giving rise to the threat of diseases like jaundice and malaria in these areas.
Incidence of jaundice has been reported from various places in Haldwani, the petitioner added. The case was taken up for hearing by the division bench of justices VK Bist and Alok Singh.