GUWAHATI: Residents of Chandrapur on the outskirts of the city, who have been staging protests since June 26 against shifting the dumping site to Chandrapur from West Boragaon, may expect a positive outcome as the Kamrup (Metro) administration is searching for an alternate location to dump waste.
Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner Biswajit Pegu on Thursday said, “We have started looking for locations at several places in the city for a dumping site. We have to shift the dumping site from West Boragaon, adjacent to Deepor Beel (a freshwater lake), in the south-west of Guwahati following a National Green Tribunal order to do so. We have seen locations at Basistha, Narengi, Tamulgaon, Boragaon, Sonapur and a few other places.”
The city of over 12 lakh population produces 550 tonnes of garbage per day.
After closing the dumping site at West Boragaon, garbage is being dumped at the 40-acre area of the Thermal Power Complex, Chandrapur, since June 28. This triggered a massive protest against the administration’s decision to shift the dumping ground to Chandrapur.
The residents said dumping the entire garbage of the city will pose a threat to the area, which is rich in bio-diversity. “It will pose a threat to the fragile ecology of the area if the district administration does not reconsider its decision and shift the dumping site from Chandrapur,” a resident said.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2019 ordered the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to shift the Boragaon dumping ground to a different location as it poses a threat to the fragile ecology of Deepor Beel, a permanent freshwater lake. Later, the then GMC commissioner Debeswar Malakar decided to install integrated solid waste management projects at four different locations in and around the city instead of shifting the dumping ground. The state government had allocated Rs 10 crore for the project.
After shifting of the dumping site to Chandrapur, several PILs have been filed before Gauhati High Court opposing the move.
On Wednesday, the high court, while hearing a cluster of PILs on the issue, directed the state government to file an affidavit by August 31.
The city does not have a waste management plant. The state government on Wednesday apprised the court that tenders for installation of waste management plant were floated and would be constructed and commissioned within a year.
