NEWS

Member of the Ridge Management Board (RMB) on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has given no green clearance to Municipal Corporation of Delhi's plan to create a new garbage disposal dump at the abandoned Bhatti mines area in the Ridge area. Citing a 10-year-old study by the ministry of environment and forest and the Delhi government on urban environment and infrastructure improvement, Delhi government counsel S Wasim Ahmed Qadri sought urgent go ahead for the project from a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan. The civic body said it had along with the environment department of Delhi government carried out an extensive survey of the Bhatti mines area to identify the pits available for disposal of municipal solid waste by landfilling. Accordingly, a proposal was submitted before RMB for allotment of this land for Engineered Sanitary Landfill site, it said. On RMB's recommendation, an environment impact assessment (EIA) study was carried out by MCD to find out the suitability of Bhatti mines as an SLF site that fell close to the Asola Sanctuary. The EIA study clearly indicates that Asola Sanctuary fell outside the demarcated SLF site at Bhatti mines and the RMB has in principle cleared the proposal, MCD said.