NEW DELHI: Irked over the proposal to build a landfill site in a residential colony of Sonia Vihar without taking local residents into confidence, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Delhi government why the garbage should not be dumped in front of Lieutenant Governor 's official residence instead of harassing common people of the colony.A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that piling of unprocessed garbage on Delhi's roads had become alarming, but the government was not taking swift action to deal with the problem. The court referred to a recent study conducted by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) which came to the conclusion that air pollution, not smoking, is a major factor for lung cancer in India."Will there be any person alive in Delhi in such a situation? It is an emergency situation but your reaction does not reflect the emergency," the bench told additional solicitor general (ASG) Pinky Anand who was appearing for Delhi government.The ASG contended that government had prepared a plan to deal with the problem but it could not be resolved overnight and it would take time. She said that decision on setting up new waste-to-energy plants by south and north Delhi municipal corporations (SDMC an NDMC) had been taken also for enhancement of all existing plants to increase the processing of garbage. She said that new units would start operationing from December next year. She also informed the court that a new landfill site was to be set up in Sonia Vihar but it was being delayed due to opposition from the residents.The court then asked the ASG why the government had not consulted the local residents and allayed their apprehension before taking the decision as the garbage could not dumped in front of their houses. "You are taking the stand of 1975 (Emergency era) when people’s opinion were not sought. Why do not you dump the garbage in front of Raj Niwas. You cannot treat people like this. I do not know what kind of colony is Sonia Vihar but I can say that people residing there must not belong to well-to-do families and that is why you have selected the site. Life of people gets affected if garbage is dumped in front of their houses. It is not acceptable,” the bench said.The court noted that only 50 per cent of 3,600 tonnes garbage generated everyday in south Delhi is processed and 1,800 tonnes was thrown at the landfill site on daily basis. It asked the government to file plans on management of solid waste and on segregation of garbage of household level. The court said that people should be punished for not segregating recyclables waste from solid waste and penalty should be imposed on them.