Kataria reviews Dadumajra dumping ground, seeks faster legacy waste clearance

The Dadumajra dumpsite has been under sustained scrutiny for several years now, with its clean-up monitored through a public interest litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and repeated questions in Parliament, primarily by Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) and the UT Administration have filed multiple affidavits before the high court, claiming progress in bioremediation while repeatedly missing court-mandated deadlines.

In January and February this year, the authorities informed the high court that two major legacy waste mounds had been cleared and assured that the remaining dump, estimated at around 2.25–2.40 lakh metric tonnes, would be fully remediated by May 2025. However, deadlines slipped amid allegations of inflated figures and misrepresentation, prompting the court to seek site photographs, impose fines on the UT Administration and the MC, and warn of contempt for non-compliance. A fire at the dumpsite on the May deadline further delayed the process, with significant quantities of waste still remaining.

Despite fresh assurances and the deployment of additional machinery through mid-2025, the court continued to express dissatisfaction over slow progress, extending timelines and imposing further penalties as issues such as leachate seepage and recurring fires persisted.

The matter has also figured in parliamentary replies. In February 2025, Minister of State Tokhan Sahu announced that bioremediation of the remaining legacy waste, estimated at around 2.40 lakh metric tonnes as of January, had commenced. He stated that complete clearance, including concurrent waste, was targeted for July 31, 2025, subject to weather conditions.

In the latest update dated December 11, 2025, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in a written reply, informed that the entire 5.10 lakh metric tonnes of identified legacy waste had been fully remediated. However, it noted that about 55,000 metric tonnes of unprocessed or recently accumulated waste was still under treatment. While the Ministry emphasised sustained processing to prevent a recurrence of waste buildup, it acknowledged multiple deadline shifts, from December 2024 to July 2025 and subsequently to later extensions, with the Municipal Corporation seeking time until November 2025. MP Tewari criticised the response for “obfuscating” the timeline changes made by the Corporation since November 2024.

Emphasising the need for early relief for residents living in the vicinity of Dadumajra, the Governor asked departments to accelerate the pace of clearance and ensure that delays do not recur. He also directed that, once cleared, the dumping ground should be developed into a green zone with extensive tree plantation to improve the local environment and augment the city’s green cover.

Later in the day, Kataria visited Transport Nagar and the Sector-26 vegetable market, where he reviewed traffic management, security arrangements and sanitation facilities. He interacted with vendors, heard their grievances and instructed officials to take necessary steps to address the issues raised.

Those present during the visits included Chandigarh Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla, Chief Secretary H Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary to the Governor Vivek Pratap Singh, Home Secretary Mandeep Singh Brar, Deputy Commissioner Nishant Yadav, Municipal Commissioner Amit Kumar, Chief Engineer C B Ojha and other senior officials of the Chandigarh Administration.