Supreme Court taking serious view of non-implementation of solid waste management rules in the country shows the concern over the shoddy handling of the civic waste produced daily across the country. Talking about the landfill site in New Delhi, which one can see while going by road growing daily and emanating unbearable stench for the road user, the court observed that safety of airlines flying over the stretch is at stake as the dump will outgrow the tallest structure Qutab Minar, attracting more birds. Already sky at the place is full of birds. The scenario is almost same in big and small cities where the waste management is in a topsy-turvy state with hardly any management system. The apex court also asked all the states and union territories to frame a policy for disposal of solid waste in three months. Garbage mounds are like a time bomb which we are sitting upon and the local bodies to implement the rules as fast as possible. The bench was hearing a matter related to implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 across the country. On February 6, the apex court had warned the Centre for dumping “junk” before it in an 845-page affidavit containing incomplete information about solid waste management in the country, saying the court is not a “garbage collector”. It had declined to take the affidavit on record and observed the government cannot dump junk before it and there was no point in filing an affidavit if it contained “nothing”. The court had on December 12 last year asked the Centre to follow up on the matter of solid waste management with all states and UTs and furnish details before it. It had earlier expressed grave concern over the deaths due to vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya and said that lack of waste management was the cause of several lives being lost across the country. In 2015, the apex court had on its own taken cognisance of death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue. He had been allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents subsequently committed suicide.
