NEW DELHI: Refuting the allegation that he was “doing nothing” to deal with the menace of increasing pile of garbage in Delhi, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on Monday placed before the Supreme Court a comprehensive report on action taken by him and told the court that all steps were being taken to address the problem but it could not be resolved overnight.

Appearing before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, additional solicitor general Pinki Anand contended that LG had passed a slew of directions from December 2016 after taking charge of the office and he had been regularly reviewing and monitoring garbage disposal plans and actions of all municipal bodies. She informed the court that no untreated garbage would be dumped after August 2020 as by then, new waste processing plan would be set up and the capacity of three existing plants would also be increased to process the garbage.

She informed the Court that the Centre had appointed scientific advisory committee comprising of high level experts from IITs, CSIR and TERI, and that the LG was monitoring the implementation of the panel’s recommendation. “The garbage problem is not going to disappear overnight. But we have to manage it to ensure that it does not increase,” the ASG told the bench.

“The problem of garbage mounds is a problem of six decades and multiple issues have made it a challenging task. As a result of intensive and continuous monitoring by the LG through site visits and regular meetings and the direction and guideline given, work is already underway to address these problems in a time bound manner in a comprehensive and sustainable way,” she told the bench.

She told the bench that LG had directed setting up new waste-to-energy plants by South and North Delhi Municipal Corporation and for enhancement of all existing plants to increase the processing of garbage. She said that land had already been allotted at Tehkhand to SDMC for constructing the plant.

“Process of extraction of landfill gas in association with GAIL has been executed and about 34 lakh cubic meter of gas has already been extracted and flared at Ghazipur landfill site. NEERI has been assigned a study on landfill fire control mechanism and new technological solutions has been invited for reclamation of Gazipur landfill site,” the affidavit said.

“At present 5300 TPD(tonnes per day) out of 10,200 TPD of solid waste generated per day is scientifically disposed off in three waste-to-energy plants. Two new plants with capacity of 3500MT are being set up an Bhalswa and Tehkhand. The capacity of existing plant at Ghazipur is being enhanced to 1000 MT and at Okhla , the capacity is being enhanced by 500 TPD. All these projects will be completed in two years time(by August 2020). After completion of these projects, it is expected that no untreated garbage will be dumped at the landfill sites,” the affidavit said.

