The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chennai Bench directed Mancherial municipal corporation (MCC) to ensure 100 per cent door-to-door segregation of waste and to convert the dry resource collection centre (DRCC) at Andalamma Colony into a scientifically managed facility. The bench disposed of the petition with a set of mandatory directions aimed at transforming collection and processing at the DRCC and improving community level source segregation.

The bench, comprising Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Dr Prashanth Gargava, heard a petition filed by Naheem Pasha from Mancherial district and emphasised that the DRCC site must not remain a dumping ground but should be operationalised promptly. Directions included expeditious operationalisation of the new DRCC, expansion of wet waste composting capacity, completion of the ongoing bio-mining project, prohibition of open burning and maintenance of adequate firefighting equipment, along with periodic testing of groundwater, surface water, soil and ambient air quality.

The tribunal instructed the Telangana Pollution Control Board to conduct quarterly site inspections and to take legal action should incidents of fire, unauthorised leachate discharge or unscientific accumulation recur. The bench required that records of inspections and corrective measures be maintained and that any non compliance be addressed through the prescribed regulatory framework to prevent environmental and public health hazards.

In an affidavit submitted to the bench, MCC commissioner G Anvesh outlined the corporation's scientific solid waste management efforts and stated that it generates 45 t of solid waste, of which 84 per cent arrives at the DRCC as mixed waste. The affidavit said tenders had been finalised to install a weighing bridge, a baling machine, two shredders and five air blowers by July 31 and that the corporation had invited private agencies or self-help groups for a two-year revenue-sharing contract to operate the DRCC, process dry waste and lead public source-segregation campaigns.