NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Delhi government to pay Rs 900 crore as environmental compensation for improper management of solid municipal waste. A bench headed by chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that around 80 per cent of legacy waste at the three landfill sites Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla was not remediated and the quantity of legacy waste at the three dumpsites was 300 lakh metric tonnes. The bench said that the scenario presented a grim picture of environmental emergency in the national capital.
“Citizens cannot be faced with an emergency situation due to lack of governance,” the bench said.
There was continuous emission of methane and other harmful gasses along with groundwater contamination, the bench said, adding even minimum safeguards against repeated fires were not adopted.
“Needless to repeat the hazardous consequences of accumulated stored garbage which are mountains,” it said. The green tribunal further said that scarce and costly public land was occupied by the waste dumpsites. “The area is 152 acres and its price even at a conservative rate is more than Rs 10,000 crore at the applicable circle rate and thus the urgency to retrieve the said public asset for beneficial public use,” it said. The NGT said that there was a serious violation citizens rights and a failure of the public trust doctrine to protect the environment.
“Steps taken so far do not meet the mandate of law and are not commensurate to the grim factual emergency situation, constantly threatening the safety of citizens and the environment with no accountability of officers entrusted with the task,” it said.