Illegal waste dumping: NGT forms panel to probe, take action in Ganderbal

New Delhi, Apr 28: The National Green Tribunal has formed a panel to ascertain if local authorities in Ganderbal district were illegally dumping solid waste on private land. The green body was hearing a plea, alleging the municipal committee of Ganderbal and the local rural development department were dumping solid waste on the complainant’s land for the last several months.

The complainant claimed her land, used for agriculture and grazing purposes, was located near the Tulmulla wetland, and was covered with migrating birds during the winter season.

In an order dated April 25, a bench of NGT judicial members Justices Sudhir Agarwal and Arun Kumar Tyagi, and expert member A Senthil Vel, said the petition failed to disclose some relevant aspects, such as the distance between the wetland and the complainant’s land, and whether the waste was being dumped with permission. "The complaint made by the letter petition in question, at the first instance, may be effectively dealt with by the authorities concerned at the local level. Accordingly, we constitute a joint committee comprising the Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal and the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee (J&KPCC)," the bench said. The committee was directed to visit the site and examine the situation. "If the committee finds that solid waste is being dumped at the land in question in violation of statutory rules framed under environmental statutes, it shall take effective, preventive, prohibitive, punitive and remedial action which may also include imposition of environmental compensation upon the violator," the tribunal said.