PCB draws fire for flouting green laws

The scientific disposal of the waste was part of the discussion at the recent cantonment board meeting where the members stressed on the scientific disposals. The meeting discussed the possibilities of upgrading the disposal facilities at the vermicompositing site at Hadapsar site for which it stressed on initiating the proposal to the southern command. “It is mandatory for the cantonment board to put in place effective means of solid waste management like segregation of bio-degredable and non-biodegredable waste under the municipal solid waste management and handling rules,2000,as notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). It is specified under rule 4 (1) that the wastage should be disposed as per the acceptable scientific and environmentally harmless methods,” noted the meeting.

“While the segregation was done at the Hadapsar vermicompost site,it is not being done at the garbage collection points during the door-to-door visits of the vehicles,” said PCB member Aarti Mahajan. ¿We have also asked for upgradation of the Hadapsar dumping site. At present,from the 27-acre of land but we are only using 9-acre of Hadapsar site for vermicompositing,” she said.

Another member Karan Makwani said the members have also emphasised the need to raise awareness among the people so that the segregation of waste takes place. “There is need on the part of people for an initiative to seperate the waste into bio-degredabale and non-biodegredabale waste which can later be ferried in the vehicles deployed at different wards. In each ward,one vehicle has been deployed. It goes to different areas for 12 hours a day to take the waste for disposal. Despite the house-to-house collection through vehicles,the waste litters the roads,” said Makwani.

PCB health superintendent V S Kulkarni said the cantonment board was introducing measures for the proper disposal of the waste.