The Bombay High Court on Tuesday constituted a four- member committee to look into the feasibility of decentralising dumping of garbage in view of a contempt petition moved by Dr Sandip Rane with regard to Mumbai’s oldest and largest dumping ground at Deonar.

Justice D Y Chandrachud has constituted the committee comprising Dr Sharad Kale (BARC), Shyam Asolekar (IIT), Rakesh Kumar (NEERI) and Dr Rane on Tuesday submitted that Kale has devised indigenous garbage dumping plants and almost 500 plants are operational in Maharashtra.

Rane submitted that it can be decentralised with 1/3 the cost as opposed to the Rs 3,495 crore budget proposed by the corporation. The committee will soon meet Additional Municipal Commissioner R A Rajeev to discuss the decentralisation issue.

Rane also stated that they are being subjected to higher pollutants at the Deonar dumping facility. The court has directed the corporation to file a reply in this regard.

Both the committee report and the reply from the corporation will be filed before the next hearing in the first week of August.

Deonar dumping ground will finally gear up for partial closure and setting up of scientific landfill where garbage will be processed and composed. However, residents around Deonar have expressed unhappiness over the Rs 3,495-crore proposal which would stop haphazard dumping and curtail morbid smoke and stench, demanding they want complete closure.

After having once rejected the proposal in May and staging a strong opposition citing high costs, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee on Monday finally gave its approval for the proposal, due to the fear of ‘contempt of court’.

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