SHILLONG, May 20: A division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya on Friday said the judges sitting in courtrooms cannot identify sites to be used for permanent or temporary dumping of garbage and it is high time the authorities got more proactive instead of training the gun from the court’s shoulders.
The court heard a PIL filed by Synjuk Ki Waheh Shnong Jowai on the issue of garbage disposal in Jowai.
While the petitioner complained that household garbage keeps piling up in homes in Jowai without any mechanism in place for its removal, the Jowai Municipal Board submitted that garbage from the streets and marketplaces is being regularly removed in trucks and taken to a temporary site.
“It is imperative that the household garbage be also removed simultaneously with the removal of garbage from the streets and the marketplaces,” the court said.
“Though the state reported that the headmen of the relevant villages have altogether declined to allow the proposed permanent site for dumping garbage, a solution has to be found by the state and local administration and there cannot be any judicial pronouncement as to which would be the proper site,” the court added.
The state reported that steps are being taken for solid waste management at an estimated cost in excess of Rs 13 crore.
“The permanent dumping site has to be identified sooner than later and arrangements made irrespective of how far it may be from Jowai. Things cannot wait nor can garbage be allowed to pile up, whether in public places or individual homes, till the solid waste management system is put in place,” the court observed.
As indicated in earlier orders, the court said there are immediate urgent measures which ought to be taken and certain other measures taken on a long-term basis, adding that the immediate cannot wait nor can the long-term mechanism be delayed any further.
The court underlined the prospect of pre-monsoon showers on garbage resulting in a deadly cocktail toxic for most plant and animal life and making the dumping sites the “ideal hotbed” for diseases.
“This aspect cannot be over-emphasised as the monsoon is due within a month and the pre-monsoon showers show no sign of relenting. There are matters where the intervention by the court is limited by the very nature of the matter. Judges sitting in courtrooms cannot identify sites to be used for permanent or temporary dumping of garbage and it is high time that the state and the local administration got more proactive and not trained the gun, so to say, from the court’s shoulders,” the court said.
Stating that this is a matter where there can be no judicial solution, the court said it will not hesitate to issue directions that may be harsh for both the state and local administration if public life is endangered as a result of any apathy to take appropriate steps on the part of the authorities who are responsible thereof.
“The problem has persisted for nearly two months now and the residents of Jowai have been more than patient in enduring the ordeal. It is hoped that a better solution is thought of and implemented before the matter appears next, ten days hence,” the order added.
