NGT forms panel to ensure proper green capping of landfill sites

NEW DELHI: Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson, on April 4, 2019, formed a joint panel involving Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials and a retired expert member of the NGT, GK Pandey, to look into a plea raised by Centre for Wildlife and Environment Litigation (CWEL) on the issue of improper green capping of landfill sites.

The CWEL mentioned that SWM Rules 2016 clearly describes the steps which local authority has to take to rehabilitate old landfill sites including the segregation of waste and process of bio-mining.

The bench asked the committee to submit a report within three weeks.

Gaurav Kumar Bansal, advocate for CWEL informed the NGT that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has adopted an illegal process of green capping of landfill sites which is not following the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. He said, “The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), at the time of deciding adoption of green capping process has failed to realise that the said process will lead to contamination of groundwater in the national capital, as the said process has failed to address the issue of leachate process.” About 5 per cent of the Bhalswa landfill site contains hazardous waste, he added.