Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 11: High Court has closed the PIL pertaining to implementation of Solid Waste Management (SWM) rules in every district of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as the matter is pending before National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The direction for closing the matter has been passed by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal. “It is not in dispute either, as made out from the affidavit furnished on behalf of Housing and Urban Development, J&K dated 15.09.2022, that in compliance to the SWM Rules, 2016, and subsequent directions issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Housing and Urban Development Department (UT), vide Order No. 25-HUD of 2019 dated 21.01.2019, notified the “Action Plan for Municipal Solid Waste Management, Jammu and Kashmir-2018”, the bench added.
The Government has averred that the said plan contains a detailed strategy to carry out effective management of municipal solid waste in all the 78 urban local bodies in the Union Territory and the Government had earlier adopted a cluster-based approach for setting up regional integrated Solid Waste Management facilities, and land parcels were identified for all the 19 clusters.
The Bench has been informed that the matter in issue is pending consideration even before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), it would be futile to parallelly continue with the present proceedings. Accordingly, it is urged that the proceedings in the present PIL be closed.
However, the counsel submitted that she be granted liberty to approach the Court by a separate petition, if so advised, in the event any cause of action arises in future. “In the wake of the above, and in terms of the statement made by the counsel for the petitioner, the proceedings in the present case are closed. The petition is disposed off in the above terms, with liberty as prayed for”, DB concluded.
The Bench was further informed that several petitions involving similar issues are pending before both the Wings i.e., Jammu as also the Srinagar, and “therefore, it would be expedient if all such petitions are also listed before the Court for consideration and appropriate orders”, court directed.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
