<p>Inspection Report by GPCB in OA No.107/2023 (WZ) (Pooja Hotchandani V/s Nadiad Municipality & Ors) dated 26/04/2024 regarding Nadiad Nagarpalika SWM site, village Kamla, Manjipura road, Nadiad,
A month and half after a court-appointed deadline to shut down the Gorai dumping ground, it continues to be used by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In fact, though the BMC had assured the Bombay High Court that the dump would be closed in December 2007, the civic administration is now seeking additional time. "The BMC has given an application to the Bombay High Court stating that the closure of Gorai will take more time,'' said Additional Municipal Commissioner (City) R A Rajeev.
The GNLF-controlled Darjeeling municipality has decided to stop supplying drinking water and clearing garbage in the town from tomorrow. In Calcutta, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the situation in the hills was "worrisome' but tourists were safe. "Those feeling unsafe would be brought down to the plains,' he added. Although a lean season for tourism, there would be several hundred tourists in the Darjeeling hills now. The peak period will begin in March.
The new MCD commissioner K S Mehra took over charge on Wednesday from A K Nigam. Mehra had served as the principal secretary (Urban development) before this and is a 1978 batch IAS officer.
Dhalaos will soon be a thing of the past. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) hopes to begin door-to-door garbage collection in Shahdara (south) in next 45 days. They also plan to float tenders to invite private parties to carry out the collection in Najafgarh and South zone within the next three weeks.
Dumper trucks with BMC logo on them bound for the Mulund dumping ground dumped solid waste in the mangroves itself Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's dumpers carrying solid waste from Mumbai are allegedly dumping it in the mangrove forests at Kolshet in Thane. The dumpers, according to Shiv Sena corporator Pandurang Patil, bearing BMC labels dump solid waste into the mangrove cover at the edge of Thane creek. Patil discovered this when he was passing through the area on Wednesday on some official work. Patil sent a letter of complaint to civic commissioner Nandkumar Jantre demanding that the BMC dumpers bringing in solid waste into the city from Ghodbunder Road en route to Mulund dumping ground near Anand Nagar check naka be kept under a watch. Those dumpers that are found disposing off their waste on the mangrove cover on the way, according to the letter, should be impounded and fined for the act. Venkatesh Bhat, the Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC) TMC Headquarters informed that it was the primary duty of the district collectorate to check the slaughter of mangroves. He added that civic commissioner Nandkumar Jantre held meetings with the collector and officials of the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) few days back and highlighted the problem. Bhat assured that the civic officials would keep an eye on such dumpers and fine those who are found illegally dumping solid waste into the area. He also informed that several civic dumpers were confiscated in Thane in the past and the TMC would not hesitate to seize BMC dumpers carrying out the illegal act of dumping garbage into the wetlands in future. The TMC, however, came under pressure from the standing committee as well. Rajan Kine, chairman of the civic Standing Committe has taken a serious note of the incident and directed the corporation to ban the passage of BMC dumpers from the city of Thane altogether earlier, these dumpers refused to pay entry taxes for using the TMC roads.
Like other developed urban local bodies of the country, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation is also expected to get more teeth with the increasing necessity to implement the 74th constitutional amendment, advocating the empowerment of the local civic bodies. Whereas the demand for empowerment is growing from inside the civic body, the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has also made it mandatory to implement the 74th constitutional amendment, before granting sum for the urban infrastructure developmental projects to the city. The State government would be the implementing agency of the constitutional amendment. At present, the city is expected to get Rs 447 crores for its various projects. The sources in the GMC said that the State government might be interested in implementing the amendment in the coming days. "In a letter from the Guwahati Development Department (GDD), SN Barman, Joint Secretary to the Government of Assam has asked the GMC to furnish the detailed action plan and activity mapping on the 18 subjects concerning the civic amenities to be regulated by the urban local body after the amendment.' The government letter has also asked the GMC to give the details of expenditures on the 18 subjects till January 31, 2008. The eighteen subjects mentioned in the letter are urban planning, regulation of land, planning for economic and social development, road and electricity, water supply, solid waste management, fire service, urban forestry, safeguarding the interest of the weaker section of the society including the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation, parks, gardens and playgrounds, protection of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects, burial grounds and cremation grounds, cattle ponds, prevention of cruelty to animals, birth and death registration, street lighting, bus stop and public conveyance and slaughter houses, said the sources. In a recent rapid training programme that was held with the basic objectives of building awareness and understanding on the context, mission, objectives and significance of reforms under the JNNURM, the experts from the Administrative Staff College of India stressed on the need of introducing the 74th amendment and specially the role and requirement of political will in this regard.
The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) has decided to set up the much-desired solid waste management plant. The civic body said that the project would be set up on Gurgaon-Palli road within eight months. The construction work is expected to start in March. The MCF will provide Rs 26 crore to a private firm for setting up the plant. It will also provide more than 50 acres of land to the firm on 50 years' lease. The firm will operate and manage the plant. It will be responsible for clearing up solid waste disposal from the city. After the lease period, the firm will hand over the utility and infrastructure to the MCF. According to the MCF, the plant will have the capacity to treat over 600 tonnes of solid waste. The need for such a plant was long felt because of the huge amount of waste generated in the city. The expanding city population proves to be a tough call for civic authorities to deal with the growing heap of garbage.
The Dhaka City Corporation has taken up an intensified plan to improve collection of solid waste through the monitoring of primary-level waste collection by community-based and non-governmental organisations. Officials at the corporation said the daily garbage was still not dumped in the right place from where the DCC carried the waste to the landfill sites.
The absence of a system for registration and regulation of hospitals and clinics run in the private sector has hindered the city district government's efforts to properly manage hospital waste. A source in the municipal services department of the CDGK said that about nine months ago, an exercise was launched to prepare a union council-wise inventory of hospitals, clinics, health-care centres, maternity homes and pathological laboratories and approach the medical establishments concerned to observe safe medical practices, which, however, received a less than encouraging response from hospitals. The field officers could not press the hospitals for details and the exercise remained a one-sided affair which yielded a very limited list. Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, hospital waste falls within the hazardous waste category, and institutions improperly handling it can be prosecuted. Hazardous waste, existing as solid waste or a combination of solid waste, because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, is considered a reservoir for disease-transmitting organisms contributing to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious illnesses. It poses a potential peril to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed. Knowing the fact that not all the small and big clinics and hospitals, both in the government and private sectors, were in a position to segregate medical waste and dispose of it properly, in the 1990s, the then municipal organisation of the city established two incinerators for safe collection and disposal of hospital waste, including hazardous waste. However, despite all efforts, till date only about 140 hospitals, health centres, laboratories and clinics are availing the government facilities against some payments, and as such it can be said that only 10-15 per cent of the waste in question is being disposed of scientifically, the source said. It was learnt that there were about 3,500 hospitals, health centres, laboratories, clinics and doctors, including qualified dentists, operating throughout the city and also generating medical waste in solid or liquid forms. The source said that since there was no proper documentation of medical establishments available with any government agency or department, the city government's municipal services department had tasked its various field workers and inspectors with collecting the relevant data. The purpose was to get the statistics and locations of hospitals and health centres and then go for counselling and coordination on medical waste disposal. However, despite all efforts the department could prepare a list of only 300-400 establishments, which could be attributed to the fact that there was no set of laws under which the hospitals and clinics could be regulated and accredited and be made to ensure, among other things, that they were environmentally and human health friendly, said a waste manager of the city government. Experts felt that it was due to the lack of a single management scenario that health-care workers, hospital administrators, sanitary workers and other health professionals were unable to understand the necessity of protecting themselves and the public from exposure to hazardous waste. Legislation ready and waiting A source privy to the public health management section of the Sindh government said that after a long exercise and consultation with all the stakeholders, including hospital managers, a draft legislation on the regulation and registration of private sector hospitals in the province was also prepared and later approved by the then chief minister in the first half of 2007 for promulgation, but it was still awaiting the consent of the governor. "Had the ordinance been promulgated, the health department, with the cooperation of the district governments, could have addressed the issue of medical waste management and streamlined the hospital waste disposal system as well,' the source noted. When contacted, Masood Alam, the City Government's EDO for Municipal Services, said his department had started an exercise to list the hospitals, but it remained half complete for a couple of reasons. "Now that the CDGK has entrusted the job of the city's solid waste management to a Chinese company, it would be the responsibility of this firm to look into the issues of all sorts of solid waste, including hospital and hazardous waste,' Mr Alam emphasised.Replying to a question, he said that his department had no real record of hospitals in the city, but it was now understood that the Chinese, who had already started visiting the union councils of the city, would also opt for listing medical establishments to manage medical waste.
BANKURA: The district town woke up to a different scene today as it witnessed state school education minister, Mr Partha De, knocking door-to-door to help extend a scientific mode of garbage collection. The minister distributed pots to be used for segregation of solid waste at source at his own constituency today. The Bankura municipality, as part of the Centre's Integrated Small & Medium Township Development Programme finally started working on solid waste management. The venture was flagged off by Mr De. The pilot project was launched in Pratapbagan locality in Ward 11. "The locals should wake up with the most scientific mode of solid waste disposal. The biodegradable and non-degradable garbage should be segregated at source. This is the most modern concept accepted globally,' Mr De said. The Bankura municipality has initially launched the project in Ward 11. The self help groups are being engaged to help collection and transportation of the waste from door-to-door. The waste articles are to be transported to the trenching ground in Kesra locality in the outskirts of the town.
