SHILLONG, MAY 20: The Meghalaya High Court on Friday threatened to issue harsh directions against the state and the local administration if public life is endangered due to delay in resolving the garbage issue at Jowai, the district headquarter of West Jaintia Hills, for almost two months.
In its order, the two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said, “This is a matter where there can be no judicial solution; but the Court 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 therefor.”
“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 train the gun, so to say, from the Court’s shoulders,” it said while hearing a PIL filed the Synjuk Ki Waheh Shnong Jowai.
The court said the problem has persisted for nearly two months now and the residents of Jowai have been more than patient in enduring the ordeal while directing the government to come up with a better solution within 10 days.
On the complaint by the Synjuk that household garbage keeps piling up in homes in Jowai without any mechanism being in place for its removal, the Jowai Municipal Board informed that garbage from the streets and market-places is being regularly removed in trucks and taken to the temporary site.
The court however directed that it is imperative that the household garbage be also removed simultaneously with the removal of garbage from the streets and the market-places.
Meanwhile, the state had informed that the headmen of the relevant villages have altogether declined to allow the proposed permanent site for dumping garbage to which the court said that “a solution has to be found out by the State and local administration and there cannot be any judicial pronouncement as to which would be the proper site”.
The State also informed that, in the meantime, steps are being taken for solid waste management at an estimated cost in excess of Rs. 13 crore.
The court has also taken into consideration the prospect of the pre-monsoon showers on garbage resulting in a deadly cocktail, toxic for most plant and animal life and making for the ideal hotbed for diseases, looms large.
“This aspect cannot be over emphasised as the monsoon is due within a month and the pre-monsoon showers show no sign of relenting,” it said.
The court further directed that the permanent dumping site has to be identified sooner than later and arrangements made irrespective of how far it may be from Jowai and said “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.”
Referring to earlier orders which indicated there are immediate urgent measures which ought to be taken and certain other measures taken on a long-term basis, the court however asserted that “the immediate cannot wait nor can the long-term mechanism be delayed any further.”
By Our Reporter
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