NGT refuses a stay on Basai waste plant

GURUGRAM: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has refused to stay the construction of a waste recycling plant in Basai wetland, in response to an application alleging that MCG doesn’t have requisite approvals under the C&D waste management rules, 2016. “We are of the considered opinion that no further order for purposes of clarification or for any other purpose is required,” said a bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore after the petitioner demanded an immediate stay on alleged dumping of waste near the waste treatment plant.
The NGT was hearing a plea filed by a Delhi-based NGO in June last year, seeking a stay on the C&D waste plant in Basai. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for May 30. But Pankaj Gupta from Delhi Bird Foundation claimed dumping of waste was changing the basic nature of the wetland. “The corporation will gradually fill up the wetland and there will be nothing left to fight for,” he told TOI.

But Sudhir Chauhan, senior town planer (MCG), said, “We are transporting material for the development of the site. We are building pavement at the site and not merely dumping waste.”

In January, the green tribunal had lifted the stay on the construction of the waste treatment plant in Basai wetland but instructed the corporation to make sure that construction starts only after receiving all requisite permission from the departments concerned under the C&D waste management rules. In December last year, the NGT had directed the petitioner to file an application with the Haryana government to declare Basai as a wetland. Also, the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF & CC) pulled up the Haryana government for not taking any step to identify and classify wetlands, including Basai. However, the state government didn’t list Basai as a wetland.