Court refers case on waste project to green tribunal

The Punjab and Haryana high court referred referred a case related to setting up of a solid waste management plant at Jhuriwala village, near Panchkula to the National Green Tribunal. The resident welfare association of Sector 26 and Vijay Bansal, president of Shivalik Vikas Manch filed a petition before the court for relocation of the proposed site for construction of the plant away from residential areas according to Municipal Solid Wastes Rules, 2000. Earlier, the Union ministry of environment and forest cleared the project near Panchkula to executive engineer (XEN) of Haryana urban development authority (HUDA) division of Panchkula. HUDA wanted to set up the plant because the entire garbage of Panchkula is dumped in Sector 23 because of which residents complain of foul smell. The counsel for the ministry said an appeal against the clearance given by the ministry would lie before the National Green Tribunal within 30 days. Hearing this, the high court referred the matter to the tribunal for hearing and asked it to fix a date of hearing and inform all parties concerned. The reply in the matter was filed by MOE&F in response to orders of the high court passed on October 15, 2012, directing to examine the project by experts and find out whether permission of the central empowerment committee is required or not.