The National Green Tribunal (NGT) came down heavily against Jammu & Kashmir Government on Thursday for scattering municipal waste across the most beautiful city of the country — Srinagar. The green bench further pointed out that tourism is the soul of the State and with dirt and filth scattered all around the common man is made to suffer.
The green bench headed by Swatanter Kumar said that it would hold top officers including the Chief Secretary personally responsible for ensuring compliance of its orders passed a year ago. It further took the State administration to task over delay in setting up of a waste-to-energy plant in Srinagar despite its order.
The Tribunal granted one week to the State Government to comply with its order and ensure there is no scattering of MSW in the city. It warned that in the event of default, the Chief Secretary, other concerned secretaries and commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) would be personally held responsible. The green panel expressed shock that there is no dustbin in the entire Srinagar city.
The Tribunal noted that on an average 500 metric tons of waste was produced a day in Srinagar and it was a statutory obligation on Government to ensure that MSW waste is dealt in a manner that it does not cause health hazard.
On January 13 last year, NGT had accorded sanction for establishing of waste to energy plant at Achan in Srinagar. Simultaneously, it had directed SMC to pay `14 lakh for failure to take steps in collection and disposal of the MSW in Srinagar. The green bench had ordered that the project should be completed in a time bound manner and in any case within a period of one year.