[Urbanstudy] Bangalore Mayor says Mavallipura Landfill to be reopened: KSPCB yields to lobby pressures and reportedly revokes its ban on dumping waste at the Ramky operated landfill

[ESG India]

ESG Release : 25 October 2012 : Bangalore

*Bangalore Mayor says Mavallipura Landfill to be reopened*

/*KSPCB yields to lobby pressures and reportedly revokes its ban on 
dumping waste at the Ramky operated landfill*/


It is being reported that the Karnataka Pollution State Control Board 
(KSPCB, autonomous environmental regulator) has yielded to pressure from 
the Karnataka Government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, 
Bangalore's civic agency) and has revoked its ban on dumping of 
Bangalore's solid waste at Mavallipura, a village north of Bangalore. It 
may be recalled that on 11 July 2012 the Board had taken a decision to 
shut down the massive landfill at this village citing 29 different 
documents that demonstrated "various non-compliances" by M/s Ramky, the 
landfill operator, which had caused serious environmental and health 
hazards.


The closure order categorically stated that "KSPCB has given enough 
opportunities to BBMP and its operator to take suitable steps/actions, 
in spite of which there is no compliance so far and further (the 
operation is) without valid authorisation of the Board as per MSW 
(Municipal Solid Waste Management) Rules, 2000". Based on this 
observation, the Board had directed BBMP and Ramky to immediately shut 
down the facility and to "process the accumulated waste completely for 
composting within 3 months in a scientific manner without causing eye 
sore to the public and health/environmental hazard". This decision was 
taken by the Board by invoking the extraordinary powers contained under 
Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The India Ministry of 
Environment and Forests endorsed this decision in a letter to the Board 
(dated 16 July 2002) and requested the latter "to take necessary action 
on the (basis of ESG's complaint) as per the provisions of the Municipal 
Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 2000". (These documents may be 
accessed at: http://tinyurl.com/9ebatcw).


Three months have passed. Neither Ramky nor BBMP have done anything at 
all to comply with the clean-up conditions imposed in the Board's 
closure order: involving treating over 20 lakhs (2 million) tonnes of 
putrid and toxic waste dumped without any environmental safeguards in 
Mavallipura by Ramky. This situation warrants serious penalisation per 
the Environment Protection Act which treats such non-compliance as a 
criminal act.


During these three months BBMP had sufficient time to deal intelligently 
with the situation by implementing a slew of measures that would 
minimise waste generation, push for segregation of waste at source, 
promote composting at source and thus prevent accumulation of waster. 
The agency could also have taken action against major waste producers by 
cutting down on wasteful material use and its disposal.


*Time lost, Opportunities lost, forcing Judiciary to step in:*


So lax has been the effort on the part of BBMP that the High Court of 
Karnataka decided to take control of the situation. Responding to a 
Public Interest Litigation that drew the attention to the evolving 
crisis (in G. R. Mohan vs. State of Karnataka, WP No. 30450/2012), the 
Court issued an interim direction on 27 August 2012 in which it observed 
that "(t)here seems to be justification in the protest of villagers, who 
are aggrieved with the dumping of garbage and waste materials from the 
City without any effort to recycle or treat the garbage. We find it 
difficult to agree with the statements allegedly made by public figures 
that villagers must be tolerant about dumping of waste from urban areas 
in their vicinity. Those who create waste or pollution are primarily 
responsible for its disposal and/or for the establishment of Units for 
this purpose." In a further decision on 10 September, the Court directed 
BBMP to implement immediately segregation of waste at source, penalise 
those who did not comply (observing that Rs. 10 as penalty was grossly 
insufficient) and specifically stated that "segregated waste shall be 
further collected at three places in every ward". The Court also 
observed that "(t)here can be no gainsaying that the landfills are not a 
permanent solution", that the "matter requires urgent decision" and also 
that "(e)very citizen needs to be reminded that he/she has Fundamental 
Duties ... to keep the environment clean by ensuring waste is segregated 
in each household..". (These decisions may be accessed at 
http://tinyurl.com/cvqsgco and http://tinyurl.com/cz8tumu.)


*Feeble efforts by BBMP to comply with Court directions:*


BBMP efforts to comply with the High Court's direction began on 1^st 
October by promoting segregation of waste at source through a series of 
major advertisements in newspapers. But the agency followed this up with 
very little concrete and systematic action and with the kind of 
intention that would positively affect the situation on the ground. BBMP 
Corporators and officials worked at cross-purposes, failed to 
systematically build the capacities of communities to provide segregated 
waste to Pourakarmikas and comprehensively ignored the critical 
importance of instituting citizen based ward committees to oversee this 
civic emergency. Besides there was absolutely no transparency in the way 
in which the operation was conducted. Communities noticed that 
segregated waste was mixed by truck operators and transported out, 
rather than treated locally as the Court had directed. All of such 
unsegregated waste was now directed to the landfill at Mandur causing 
havoc to lives and livelihoods of local villagers who expectedly 
resisted such dumping at their doorstep. With nowhere to dump, waste 
accumulated on the streets.


*Board's action to allow dumping in Mavallipura illegal:*


Such failure to comply with legally mandated norms and the Court's 
directions should have compelled KSPCB, as the principal regulator, to 
force the civic agency to take such steps that would relieve the city of 
the crisis. Instead the Board has, in absolute variance to the Court's 
directions and applicable laws, reportedly withdrawn its ban on dumping 
of waste at Mavallipura. Not only will this now ensure that the lax 
attendance by BBMP to a serious environmental and public health crisis 
is encouraged, but it may even result in needlessly violating the human 
rights of villagers of Mavallipura who are keen to protect their 
Fundamental Right to a Clean Environment.


In all this, Ramky seems to be the biggest beneficiary. For not only has 
BBMP failed to force the operator to clean up the mess that it created 
over the years, but what's worse, the Board rather than taking penal 
action for failure to comply with its closure order, has instead 
encouraged the operator to reopen this toxic landfill. All this has 
resulted in a colossal loss of opportunity to win the confidence of 
villages seriously impacted by dumping of Bangalore's waste over the 
years that the State cares for their welfare.


Given that the Judiciary is seized of the matter, it is incumbent on the 
part of KSPCB and the BBMP to have ensured their actions were in strict 
conformity with law and the directions of the High Court. On the 
contrary, it appears that the Board has now yielded to pressures from 
various lobbies that have worked at cross purposes to the directions of 
the Judiciary by allowing the Mavallipura landfill operated by Ramky to 
be reopened.


This illegal action of the Board and BBMP sets a very regressive 
precedent for progressive environment and human rights protection 
efforts and will be appropriately challenged.




Leo F. Saldanha

	

Bhargavi S. Rao

	

Mallesh K. R.


	


	


Environmental, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives
Environment Support Group - Trust
1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road
Banashankari II Stage
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26713559~61
Voice/Fax: 91-80-26713316
Web:www.esgindia.org
Email:esg at esgindia.org








-- 
Environmental, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives
Environment Support Group - Trust
1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road
Banashankari II Stage
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26713559~61
Voice/Fax: 91-80-26713316
Web:www.esgindia.org
Email:esg at esgindia.org




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