Charanjit Singh Teja
Amritsar, February 8
Bulk waste generators, including restaurants and hotels, have been dumping waste in green belts of the national highway and other roads instead of installing in-house processing units.
Heaps of used plastic and disposable plates and packing martial can be seen lying in a green belt near Vallah Railway overbridge on bypass road. The garbage has been regularly dumped by nearby marriage palaces, restaurants and other bulk waste generators. In the absence any check by authorities, the heaps of garbage are growing large.
On the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Municipal Corporation (MC) in July 2020 had issued notices to over 100 bulk waste generator firms to install processing units on their premises. An in-house processing unit is mandatory for bulk waste generators as per the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016.
The MC had sent notices to 47 major hotels and restaurants, 12 marriage places, 25 educational institutions and 14 hospitals of the city. Besides, the authorities of the Interstate Bus Terminal, railway station and Central Jail were also asked to install a processing machine. According to the MSW rules, a firm which generates over 100 kg of waste per day is considered as a bulk waste generator.
Not only waste of restaurants and hotels, industrial waste and debris is also being dumped at green belt. Commuters, who commute on the bypass road daily, claimed that stink from garbage causes a lot of inconvenience and gives a bad impression of city to the visitors.
“A team for the nationwide survey of cleanliness is expected to visit the city. The MC should take care of such ignored spots to improve the ranking,” said Randheer Sharma, a resident of Vallah Bypass Road.
In-house processing unit must
As per the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016, an in-house processing unit is mandatory for bulk waste generators. According to the MSW rules, a firm which generates over 100 kg of waste per day is considered as a bulk waste generator.
