HC lifts stay on dumping at Kanjurmarg

The Bombay High Court on Thursday lifted the stay on dumping at the Kanjurmarg landfill site. On November 6, the court had ordered a stay on dumping garbage at the site, responding to a PIL by an NGO named Vanshakti. The court then asked the BMC to explain why the ban should not be made permanent.

The civic body on Thursday cited an order of the Supreme Court in 2003 allowing the BMC to turn the land at Kanjurmarg into a dumping ground. Earlier, Additional Municipal Commissioner Mohan Adtani said in a meeting of the BMC's standing committee that the civic body had built the dumping ground outside the CRZ area. A division bench of Justice D D Sinha and Justice K K Tated on Thursday vacated the order of staying further dumping at Kanjurmarg.

Until the stay order, the Kanjurmarg dumping ground, which has been partially opened, received 500 metric tonnes of garbage, while Mulund receives 1,000-1,500 metric tonnes of garbage and Deonar receives the remaining chunk of 5,500 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste . However, during the stay order, the pressure on the Deonar landfill rose considerably as it was made to receive Kanjurmarg's supply as well causing residents to raise objections.

The Kanjurmarg scientific dumping ground is expected to be ready by 2013 and has been projected to function for the next 25 years. With this will begin the partial closure, which has been slated since 2009, of the 128-hectare Deonar dumping ground and the 26-hectare Mulund dumping ground. Over 4,000 metric tonnes of MSW will be directed to the Kanjurmarg landfill, Deonar will receive 2,000 metric tonnes and Mulund will receive 500 metric tonnes which will consist only of industrial and hotel waste.

The petitioners claim the garbage was being dumped near the mangrove area. However, the BMC claims the report is on the Mulund dumping ground, and not the one at Kanjurmarg. The case has now been deferred to December 10.

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