CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set December 31 as the deadline for Bargarh municipality to clear the legacy waste of about 51,476 metric tonnes of garbage dumped by it over a span of 10-15 years in an area of 1.59 acres.
The NGT’s East Zone bench in Kolkata has directed the state government to deposit Rs 1.84 crore in an ESCROW account to enable the civic body to address the problem of legacy waste. The bench of Justice B Amit Sthalekar (Judicial Member) and A Senthil Ven (Expert Member) said, “So far as treatment of legacy
waste is concerned, we direct the Bargarh Municipality to ensure complete treatment of legacy waste through Bio-mining/Micro Composting Centers/Material Recovery Facilities by December 31, 2023.”
“We further direct that till complete remediation of the legacy waste at the present dump site of 51,476 MT is achieved the present dump site shall be secured by a boundary wall construction which will be completed within a period of two months,” the bench specified in its March 23 order, a copy of which was available on Thursday.
The tribunal issued the final order while disposing of the petition by Ramakanta Rout and six other residents of Purushotam Nagar in Ward no 15 seeking intervention against keeping the garbage dumped at a site near their locality. Advocate Sankar Prasad Pani argued on behalf of the petitioners.