Waste-to-energy as a placebo


In her petition to the Supreme Court, Patel demanded a stay on the subsidy to wte plants and an independent review of such plants based on the experience in the Lucknow and Hyderabad plants. In 2005, the Supreme Court ordered the creation of a committee to study the performance of wte plants. This 14-member committee was chaired by Dilip K Biswas, former chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board. "Most of the members have a direct or indirect interest in the promotion of wte,' says Patel. "It is a case where the subject of investigation itself (mnre) has taken up the responsibility of review and assessment,' says Gopal Krishna of the Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

The committee's report came out in December 2005.Two of its members