Saturday, 20 May 2023 | PNS | NAINITAL
Judiciary to undertake sanitation drive in State on June 18
Expressing dissatisfaction at its earlier orders regarding proper disposal of plastic waste not being implemented by the State government, Uttarakhand High Court has issued a series of directions to the government. The court has directed the government to facilitate QR coded plastic water bottles from the manufacturer and facilitate refunding for empty bottles as is being done on the Kedarnath route. The upper layer of all motor roads built with Central government funds will be built with plastic waste. Further, the government will clear waste on a war footing. These and other instructions were issued by the division bench of chief justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari while hearing on a public interest litigation on the ban on plastic and disposal of plastic waste in the State.
The bench remarked that on June 18, the entire judiciary will undertake a sanitation campaign in the State in which the HC justices and employees will also take part. The government is also expected to take part in this effort. During the hearing on Friday, the government counsel said that the government has undertaken campaigns for waste disposal in various places. He said that the government will also cooperate in the sanitation campaign on June 18. The court directed the Urban Development department to strictly implement the earlier orders of the court. Plastic water bottles must have refundable QR codes printed by the manufacturer and the collection-refund system being implemented on the Kedarnath route should be implemented across the State. Plastic waste should be used to lay the top layer of all roads built with Central funds and the Urban Development department should undertake cleaning of waste on a war footing, the HC directed. The court also directed the government to widely publicise the Centre’s Swachchh Bharat app and the High Court’s complaint redressal portal so that concerned citizens can register their complaints and the same can be resolved. The court will also monitor this. The court also directed that the physical verification of sanitation workers should be conducted to ascertain who is working. All garbage collection vehicles should be fixed with GPS devices, the court directed.
It will be recalled that Almora resident Jitendra Yadav had filed the PIL stating that rules for plastic use and disposal of plastic waste had been made in the State in 2013 but these rules are not being followed. In 2018 the Centre made the Plastic Waste Management Rules in which the responsibility of the manufacturer, transporter and vendors has also been fixed to ensure that they collect back the plastic waste equal in quantity to the plastic items they are selling. Failing this, they are supposed to pay the local body to enable it to properly dispose of the plastic waste. However, the rules are being blatantly violated in Uttarakhand with mounds of plastic waste piling up especially in the mountainous regions in the absence of proper disposal, the petitioner said.
