NGT requests an affidavit about a strategy to address Bhubaneswar’s trash issue

According to the inspection report turned in by the committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently able to collect 510 tonnes of the 800 tonnes of municipal solid waste that are produced daily in the 67 wards of the capital city.

Furthermore, according to the report and affidavit issued by the State Pollution Control Board on Friday, legacy garbage totaling 3,405 tons continues to build without being treated with the daily collected rubbish.

A resident of the Chandrasekharpur locality named Harapriya Patel filed a complaint based on a news story, and the NGT’s East Zone bench in Kolkata was hearing the matter suo motu. A committee was established by the tribunal to investigate the allegation about the foul odor emanating from a BMC-managed waste dump at the temporary transit station (TTS) close to Sainik School in the state capital.

The bench made up of judicial member B Amit Sthalekar and expert member Arun Kumar Verma took note of the inspection report and stated, “Even if 510 tonnes of waste were collected daily, there would still be a 290-tonne daily shortfall due to the daily generation of 800 tonnes of municipal waste that the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is not accounting for. It is unclear how the corporation intends to handle this garbage, which will eventually build and turn into legacy waste.

Regarding the remaining 290 metric tons of unprocessed municipal solid trash, the report offers no explanation. Additionally, it is anticipated that the daily trash output would rise and not stay constant at 800 tons in the future. What is the strategy for getting rid of the expected rise in municipal waste? The bench enquired.

As a result, the bench gave BMC instructions to submit an affidavit detailing its plans for handling both legacy trash and newly created garbage in order to prevent legacy waste from building up in the future. The bench ordered the matter to be listed on May 28 and said, “Let the affidavit be filed within four weeks.”