'Effective Steps Already Taken': High Court Disposes Of PIL For Proper Solid Waste Management Pursuant To Kerala Floods

The Kerala High Court has disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the concerned authorities to initiate immediate action for proper solid waste management, subsequent to the devastating floods in the State.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly noted that the respondents had "already taken all possible effective steps" for the disposal of solid waste caused due to flood, as laid down in statutory provisions.

The petitioner, appearing through Advocate Santhosh Mathew, had argued that the local self-government bodies are duty-bound to ensure door-to-door collection and segregation of solid waste from households, including slums and informal settlements, commercial, institutional and other non-residential premises.

According to the petitioner, there was inaction on part of the Municipal authorities in providing adequate facilities for the management of solid waste. 

Citing such inaction, the PIL sought a direction to the respondents to take immediate effective steps for preparing infrastructure development for collection, storage, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste.

He submitted that the public roads, parks, bus stations, railway stations, markets and other public premises were to be cleaned on a daily basis, including holidays, by the local-self-government bodies.

The onus of providing adequate sanitation facilities to the public and minimizing the spreading of communicable diseases falls on the public bodies, he argued.

Additionally, it was argued that the local-self-government bodies were responsible for setting up decentralized compost plants or bio-methanation plants at suitable locations in and around the markets ensuring hygienic conditions.

According to the plea, no such plants were established by Cochin Municipal Corporation or various local self-government institutions in the State.

Another concern raised by the petitioner was that the steps taken to ban plastic bags were not enforced efficiently by the authorities concerned. 

Finally, the petition stated that these bodies were accountable for not creating public awareness about waste generators and how to segregate the waste. 

The untreated garbage disposed of by municipal and other local authorities every day, in an unhygienic manner, causes the spreading of communicable diseases, such as Malaria, Dengue fever, Chikungunya, Cholera, Typhoid, Diarrhoea etc, read the PIL.

The petitioner added that such a lack of sufficient solid waste management has led to another dangerous menace of a surge in the number of stray dogs in the locality.

Pursuant to the plea being filed, a detailed counter affidavit was filed by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board through its Standing Counsel T. Naveen, wherein, it was stated that there are more than 2.5 lakhs of wells submerged in the flooded area which were regularly cleaned and disinfected.

The counter-affidavit also disclosed that the District Offices, Regional Offices and the State Level Cell constituted by the Board were closely monitoring the measures taken by the authorities for mitigating the Pollution/waste caused by the flood. 

Another elaborate counter-affidavit was filed by the Secretary, Corporation of Kochi through its Standing Counsel K. Janardhana Shenoy, wherein, it was revealed that strict directions were given in the form of proceedings of Secretary assigning Health Inspectors and Junior Health Inspectors to ensure that wastes are transported in covered vehicles.

Further, it was submitted that the responsibility for proper segregation of waste at the source level has been assigned to Health Inspectors of respective health circles.

Health Inspectors have to ensure that source-level segregation is in place or shall enforce wherever necessary and from the waste transfer points plastic wastes are not loaded into the truck that carries food waste/Biodegradable waste, it was stated. 

Considering the averments contained in the said counter-affidavits, the Court was convinced that the respondents have already taken all possible effective steps for the disposal of solid waste caused due to flood, as laid down in statutory provisions.

The writ petition was accordingly disposed of.

Case Title: Jackson Mathew v. State of Kerala & Ors

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