Times
of India: Rajkot: Wednesday, 03 December 2014.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swatchh Bharat' campaign seems to have no takers in
Rajkot where all environmental rules relating to disposal of municipal wastes
stand flouted.
An inspection
of Rajkot Municipal Corporation's (RMC's) erstwhile municipal solid waste
processing and landfill site revealed that none of the environmental laws were
adhered to by the civic body.
RTI activist
Shailendrasinh Jadeja, who has been fighting against RMC's negligence on solid
waste, carried out inspection in the presence of RMC official following an
order by Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) at Nakaravadi village.
"It took
two years to get the site inspected as RMC was declining the inspection.
Finally, GIC gave an order in favour of my RTI application," said Jadeja.
RMC had given
the contract to private firm Hanjer Biotech Pvt. Ltd to process municipal solid
waste. It blacklisted the firm one and a half year ago after it failed to carry
out operations in a satisfactory manner. Since then the waste is being dumped
at an adjoining area.
"During
inspection it was found that there was no ground water sampling report for the
landfill site. There were no equipment to monitor air pollution and there was
no office at all. No green belt around the site was created. Most importantly,
the firm had not even obtained a license from the Gujarat Pollution Control
Board (GPCB) to start the site. There was no weigh-bridge at the site. Therefore,
we did not get any idea of how much waste was processed. This was gross
negligence on part of RMC as a result of which people living around seven
villages are suffering on account of environmental hazards," Jadeja told
TOI.
"RMC has
been dumping on an average 400 tonnes of unprocessed municipal solid waste
daily near the landfill site at Nakaravadi village. It seems that living around
Rajkot city is a crime as the waste cleared from the city is dumped near the
village," Jadeja said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
