Ludhiana: In violation of the solid waste management case, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has appointed Advocate Bhanwar Pal Singh as the court commissioner to inspect the sites and ascertain the correct position.
The tribunal ordered, “Since the conflicting material has come on record, therefore, we deem it proper to appoint Bhanwar Pal Singh Jadon, Advocate as the Court Commissioner, who will visit the site, ascertain the correct position and will submit a report atleast one week before the next date of hearing by e-mail at judicial-ngt@gov.in preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.”
As per the orders of the NGT, the actual expenses of visit and stay of the court commissioner will be borne by Punjab Pollution Control Board.
The matter pertains to the issue of unscientific handling of solid waste in Ludhiana in violation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
Earlier, the applicant Kapil Dev, member of Punjab Action Committee, had moved an application before the NGT last year in 2023 while highlighting the violation at atleast 23 locations. Following which, the tribunal, on May 2, 2023 constituted a joint committee comprising of the State PCB, District Magistrate and Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana.
After the committee filed the reports, the applicant filed the objections on August 19 disputing the findings of the joint committee.
As per the details of objections submitted by the applicant before the tribunal, applicant mentioned that joint committee in their report while mentioning about issue ‘Near Village Gill on both sides of Road Garbage is being dumped into Village Pond and roadsides by MCL, Village Panchayat & Private Hoteliers/Marri age Palaces’ submitted that land has been identified in Gram Panchayat Gill for dumping garbage and grant of Rs. 2.20 lacs has been received under Swachh Bharat Mission and also stated that work on the ground level has been started from May 3, 2024. In objection to it, the applicant submitted that the Joint Committee has submitted a false report as no work has been started at the impugned location and garbage in huge quantity is laying at the location. Further, garbage is found to be buried at the site too.
Similarly, there are several other objections submitted by the applicant before the tribunal.
During the hearing on August 29 (Thursday), the counsel appearing for respondents sought time to file responses to the objections within four weeks.
The tribunal stated that it will be open to all other respondents to file the response to the objection, if any, within the same period by way of affidavit and the tribunal also appointed the court commissioner for ascertaining the correct position.
The matter is listed for next hearing on December 9, 2024.