A clean and green city is every citizen’s need. It is the duty of the civic body as well as the citizens to work towards fulfilling the need by keeping the city clean, but it is just the opposite that is happening in Seminary Hills area. A huge open plot that came into limelight after a fire incident in Seminary Hills area a few days ago is a perfect example of the civic body’s callous attitude towards city’s environment.

 

The plot, situated near LAD College in Seminary Hills, has become an illegal dumping yard of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in the past one year. Earlier, it was a huge pit and used to accumulate rain water from nearby areas during monsoon that helped maintain the ground water level in the locality. However, since past one year, the NMC started dumping construction and demolition (C&D) waste and other solid waste, including plastic and green waste, on the plot since the past one year, which has levelled the pit. According to C&D waste rule notified by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), every water source or nullah in a designated C&D waste dumping site should be first conserved with the help of RCC pipes and then the dumping should take place. It helps to maintain natural water sources on the plot. The rule also states that the processing or recycling site should be away from habitation clusters, forest areas, water bodies, monuments, national parks, wetlands and places of important cultural, historical and religious interest. However, the NMC, overlooked all these rules by MoEF&CC and started dumping illegally on the huge plot, which is owned by some other person.

 

“During monsoon, the plot turns into a small pond as it accumulates rainwater from nearby areas. But, after dumping of solid waste by NMC, the water accumulation stopped. The civic body has also been dumping plastic waste over which there is a layer of C&D waste,” said Abhijeet Jha, a social worker and a resident of the area. “The residents of Govinda Gaurkhede Complex and Friends Colony are facing health hazards as the dumped garbage, including the plastic waste, catches fire. There were six such incidents of fire ever since the dumping began here,” said Jha.

 

After a stern protest by near by residents against the dumping of solid waste on the open land, NMC stopped dumping and locked the entrance of the land. However, the residents are demanding removal of all plastic dumped by NMC on the land as the legacy plastic waste is damaging the land and due to it the fire incident can happen in future also. “Stopping dumping is not the solution. NMC should remove all plastic waste from the land and make it a clean space with no pollution,” said Jha. Along with illegal dumping of C&D waste in the open land, the civic body flouted many other environment norms which should be also rectified by NMC. Surbhi Jaiswal, green activist and Team Lead, Green Vigil Foundation, said, “Mixing of any other waste including household solid waste, tree remains etc. with C&D waste is strictly prohibited in Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. NMC should designate specific sites for dumping of C&D waste only. Open dumping areas are prone to fire incidents and add on significantly to air pollution, hence open dumping should be prohibited.”