City will see Bhopal-like tragedy if quarries aren’t cleared, says Karnataka High Court

BENGALURU:Observing that another Bhopal gas tragedy may occur and people will die in thousands if proper steps are not taken to control the gas emitting from the quarry pits where waste is being dumped in city, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the BBMP to take steps to make seven solid waste processing plants fully functional. They are defunct after establishing them 18 months ago by spending `350 crore.

After the counsel of the petitioner submitted that the gas is generating like bombs in quarry pits, a division bench of Justice BS Patil and Justice B V Nagarathna observed that there may be fire in quarry pits like in Bellandur lake. In the lake, the fire is on water but if fire occur in quarry pits, it may be like another Bhopal gas tragedy. People will die in thousands if the emanating gas is not controlled, the court said.
The court warned that all officials will be held responsible if anything went wrong for not complying the directions from time to time.

The court has also asked the BBMP to furnish the details of Ward Committees which are not conducting the meeting to identify places for processing the waste generating within the ward, to initiate action against them by Friday. The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigations seeking directions for proper management of solid waste in the city.

For establishing solid waste processing plant in each ward, the Commissioner of BBMP filed an affidavit stating that appropriate orders were issued to Ward Committees. According to him, 4 wards already issued work order after identifying place for plant and the process is under progress as far as 5 wards are concerned. In respect of other wards, there is no progress.