Legal battle likely on the setting up of STP between Shimla MC and Gram Panchayat Totu-Majthai
On the issue of setting up a Sewage Treatment Plant in the catchment area of Gambarkhud, a legal battle is likely to begin between Shimla Municipal Corporation and Gram Panchayat Totu -Majthai.
Pradhan and Chairman of Revenue Village Bharyal Forest Rights Committee, Uttam Singh Kashyap said that a five-member committee was formed to fight the court case after taking legal opinion on the issue.
The decision to take legal recourse was taken during the Gram Sabha meeting of Gram Panchayat Totu -Majthai on Sunday.
A five-member committee comprising of Panchayat pardhan Uttam Singh Kashyap as chairman, Deputy head Keshapa Ram as secretary, Ghanshyam Sharma as treasurer, and Om Prakash and Santosh Kumar as member would take legal advice and move a petition in the court against the dictatorial decision of Municipal Corporation Shimla.
He said that the proposed setting up of a sewerage treatment plant in village Bharyal of Gram Panchayat Tutu-Majthai by Municipal Corporation Shimla was taken by the Shimla MC, State Government, and union government without taking the gram Sabha in its confidence.
Panchayat Pradhan said that the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India had approved in February 2010 the landfill site associated with the garbage plant on 130 bighas of forest land as per the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2000, which was transferred for some other purpose.
He said that the civic body couldn’t convert the landfill dumping site to STP as it would ruin the entire catchment area of Gambarkhud the tributary of Satluj.
He said that Shimla MC could not change the Solid waste treatment landfill site to sewerage treatment plants and facts are being hidden by the authorities before obtaining the consent of STP from the Union government.
He said that Gram Panchayat has shown written protest against the move but Shimla Municipal Corporation arbitrarily ignored the law and before forcefully taking 130 bighas of common land for a landfill site now the land was transferred to a sewerage treatment plant.
He said that Solid waste treatment plants set up 14 years ago were a monumental blunder of Shimla MC including the landfill site’s entire stretch of protected forest from Taradevi to Bharyal being polluted as garbage and dumping soils including tonnes of plastic are being thrown in the open.
He said that on the same matter, Panchayat had also filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court against the garbage plant set up in 2010. However, the above court rejected the petition based on the false statement of Shimla Municipal Corporation that the garbage plant under construction would have ultra-modern technology and would be pollution-free.
The actual situation on the spot today is alarming as lakhs of tonnes of solid waste is lying in the open, due to its foul smell, it has become difficult to pass through Tutu-Taradevi Road and the surrounding areas.
Uttam Kashyap said that due to not building the landfill site associated with the garbage plant and now installing the proposed sewerage treatment plant, not only the Panchayat area but many Panchayat areas up to Gambhar Khad of Solan district will be adversely affected by polluted water and air.
He further informed that more than four thousand trees were cut from the 130 bigha forest land transferred to the landfill site 14 years ago.
However, due to the non-construction of the landfill sites, there was no justification for cutting these trees. In these 14 years, thousands of saplings have grown in the identified land, which could no longer be allowed to be cut again to set up a sewerage treatment plant.
It is worthwhile to mention that recently Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change gave the nod to convert the landfill site to sewerage treatment plants.
