Only four days after the Supreme Court expressed displeasure over Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal not taking effective steps to tackle garbage problem in the city, the LG Office on Monday said the work is underway and all projects at landfill sites will be completed by August 2020.
"All these projects will be completed in two years' time (August 2020). After completion of these three projects, it is expected that no untreated garbage will be dumped at the landfill sites," the statement read.
"The problem of garbage mounds is a legacy problem of six decades and multiple issues have made it a challenging task. As a result of intensive and continuous monitoring by the Lt. Governor through site visits and regular meetings, and directions and guidance given, work is already underway to address these problems in a time-bound manner in a comprehensive and sustainable way," it said.
According to the statement, Baijal has been regularly reviewing and monitoring garbage disposal plans and actions of all the three municipal corporations for management of legacy mounds and processing of daily waste generated, their site-specific challenges and imminent requirement of remediation of these huge mounds.
A Scientific Advisory Committee, which includes experts from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), was formed in September 2017 on the advice of Baijal.
"As a result of his 27 review meetings with all stakeholders and eight site visits since January 2017, the municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs) chalked out detailed plans and took steps to manage the 34 million metric tonnes of garbage in the form of legacy mounds and for the closure of sanitary landfill sites," it said.
The Supreme Court on July 12 expressed displeasure over the failure of LG, whom it called "Superman", for not taking effective steps to tackle garbage problem in the city, after his office admitted that garbage management comes within its jurisdiction.
A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta slammed Baijal for not taking appropriate action on the issue of solid waste management in Delhi and noted that he did not attend crucial meetings on the issue and had also not issued any directions.
--IANS
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