NEW DELHI: Noting that the states must make a realistic assessment of generated waste, the Supreme Court on Thursday in its order directed Delhi and the NCR, certain districts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh governments, to designate senior officers to supervise the process to achieve 100 per cent collection and segregation of solid waste.
“The nodal officers dealing with both the issues shall file regular compliance reports starting from September 1, 2025. After every quarter compliance report shall be filed in this court,” said, a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. The top court clarified that the NCR states had to fix an outer limit on achieving this target. The apex court passed the direction after hearing the plea filed by noted environmentalist, M C Mehta seeking appropriate orders and directions to reduce air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The issue of solid waste management in Delhi-NCR stems from the air pollution matter in the NCR. It had previously said the segregation of waste at source was of “vital importance” for the environment and asked the NCR states for compliances under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
It is to be noted that the National Capital Region (NCR) comprises Delhi aside from certain districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The top court highlited that if there was no proper segregation of waste, then even waste-to-energy projects would create more pollution. Earlier, the apex court pulled up the Delhi Government for the lack of compliance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in the city.
The top court also had directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to submit a report on the impact of waste-to-energy projects on the environment. In many hearings, the apex court stressed that the solid waste management in Delhi was in a “sorry state” and may lead to a public health emergency. The top court had observed that the generation of solid waste daily was more than 11,000 metric tonnes and waste treatment plants’ processing capacity was only 8,073 metric tonnes.