<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Prajesh Bisen & Others Vs Chief Municipal Officer, Balaghat & Others dated 14/11/2024.</p> <p>Counsel for
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.
Try looking for an overflowing garbage bin on the service roads in Satellite area or in the new west zone. Only a few are left in the sprawling 200 sq km zone. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has been working to rid the city of garbage bins. They have been fairly successful with their start in the new west zone. The model will be replicated in other zones, once new west zone achieves nearly 90 per cent implementation, say officials. AMC had awarded contracts for garbage collection to nearly 25 contractors. The contractors send tractor containers to housing societies to collect garbage. The sanitary inspectors decided the routes and frequency of visit of tractors to societies to maintain cleanliness. AMC has started imposing huge fines of Rs 6,000 on societies that dump waste on roadsides and near dividers. On an average, they collect Rs two lakh in fines every month from the zone. "We have been successful in reducing to 25, the number of bins in the 200 sq km of the new west zone,' said a senior official at the sanitary department of AMC.
The study is to analyse the solid waste disposal system and suggest suitable modification in the present solid waste management practice in city and find out the gap and deficiencies and suggest the r
Door-to-door collection of waste from hotels, besides residential houses came to an abrupt halt in the Commercial Capital in the last two days for want of labourers.
