Mumbai, Jul 15 If Indore can get the cleanest city tag why can't Mumbai achieve the same level of sanitation success? the Bombay High Court questioned on Wednesday while noting that civic body officials were duty-bound to ensure public roads are garbage-free.
The court also referred to the recent collapse of a waste plant building at Moshi in Pune district and said a similar incident should not happen in Mumbai, which, too, has garbage mounds.
A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe observed there is a lack of will on both the local civic body and citizens' part and hence Mumbai is facing issues of garbage lying on roads which then leads to water logging during the monsoon and other health hazards.
The court made the remarks while hearing a bunch of petitions raising concerns over pollution, persistent foul odour, gas emissions and health risks for residents in the vicinity of the dumping ground in suburban Kanjurmarg.
On July 8, a huge mound of waste -- accumulated untreated solid garbage and industrial by-products left in an old landfill site for years -- became unstable after heavy rain and crashed onto a two-storey building at Moshi in Pimpri-Chinchwad, killing nine people.
"Such an incident should not happen here (Mumbai). There are tall garbage mounds here too," the court remarked.
The bench noted that citizens, too, should be sensitised to not throw garbage and solid waste on roads and to also segregate trash.
"No citizen is free to throw garbage on public roads in Mumbai. Another major cause of concern is spitting. Spitting is a national hobby in our country," the court said.
The bench stated that the fine amount for spitting should be increased from the measly Rs 200 to Rs 2,000.
The court further noted that ward officers are duty-bound to ensure that no garbage is lying on roads.
"Indore recently got the tag of the cleanest city in India (for 8th consecutive year). It could achieve this only because of the commitment of its civic body officials. Why cannot the same be done for Mumbai? It is not difficult to achieve the same provided there is a will to do so," the HC maintained.
The bench directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner to issue orders to every ward officers to ensure that garbage found lying on roads is removed immediately.
There has to be an endeavour to strictly implement solid waste rules, it insisted.
"Unless at the ground level such precautions are taken, the complexities in collection and disposal of solid waste would not only amount to a nuisance, but also cause difficulties in its effective handling," the court stated.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.
