Report of Oversight Committee in compliance of order of National Green Tribunal passed in O.A. No. 136/2015 & O.A. No. 06/2017 in the matter of Nagar Palika Parishad, Vrindavan & Others Vs Madhumangal Shukla & Others dated 23/07/2020.

The matter related to remedial action against unregulated dumping of solid waste in the flood plains of Yamuna and scientific clearing of the legacy waste site at Vrindavan in accordance with the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. Detailed inspection was carried out on July 9, 2020 and July 10, 2020 by the authorised officers of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB).

The observations of the Oversight Committee included the following:

1. The Committee observed that remediation of legacy waste at Maat Road site was complete and now no waste was present to be remediated.

2. The Committee was dissatisfied with the municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment facility at Nagla Kolhu, Mathura wherein the landfill was not being utilized to store landfillable waste frequently. Proper arrangement of leachate collection and gas collection/flaring arrangement were not made.

3. Further, during inspection, leachate drain was found choked and no permanent pipeline was present from collection tank to sewage treatment plant (STP).

4. In the inspection, it was found that most of the area of MSW Plant was covered by legacy waste which needs to be remediated at the earliest.

5. The present processing capacity of Nagla Kolhu processing plant was 180 TPD which was just enough to cater to the day to day processing of solid waste in Mathura. Already 1.80 lakh tons of legacy waste was lying untreated at Nagla Kolhu.

The Committee stated that the shifting of Vrindavan solid waste from Maat Road to Nagla Kolhu waste site would be meaningful only if bio waste remediation of legacy waste was being done at the latter site. Otherwise it would just be an exercise in redistribution of solid waste. The Committee was informed that already tenders for bio remediation for a few legacy waste sites including Nagla Kolhu are pending for finalisation at government level. The Committee directed that bio waste remediation should start in Nagla Kolhu in 3 months time failing which a penalty of Rs 5 crores should be imposed on Uttar Pradesh government.