The case of the Rs 6 crore waste management plant at Dangarpora Padgampora in Pulwama is not merely an instance of administrative failure; it is a stark indictment of how solid waste management is being treated in Jammu and Kashmir. What was sanctioned and funded as a scientific disposal facility has, in reality, degenerated into an open dumping site-something that is expressly prohibited under existing environmental laws. The irony is cruel: a project meant to safeguard public health and the environment has instead become a source of daily misery for local residents. The Municipal Solid Waste Rules, 2016, along with the Water and Air Pollution Acts, clearly outlaw such practices. Yet, at Dangarpora, waste lies scattered, burns in the open, emits toxic fumes and produces leachate that threatens groundwater. Even more disturbing is the fact that this illegality is being perpetrated not by rogue operators, but by the Municipal Committee itself-an institution entrusted with enforcing the very laws it is violating.
For the local population, the consequences are severe and immediate. Foul odour, plastic litter in paddy fields, and the constant fear of stray dog attacks have become part of everyday life. Women hesitate to venture into agricultural fields, children fear walking to school, and livestock is routinely attacked. The presence of an irrigation canal just metres away from the dumping site raises the spectre of invisible but far more dangerous contamination of water sources that sustain over a thousand acres of farmland. This is not just surface pollution; it is a slow poisoning of land, water and livelihoods.
The most troubling question is accountability. How can more than Rs 6 crore be spent and yet the “output” be zero? Why has the District Administration remained a mute spectator despite inspection reports, statutory notices by the Pollution Control Committee and mounting public distress? Silence and inaction in such cases are not neutral-they amount to complicity. Solid waste management in J&K continues to be treated as a peripheral issue, addressed through half-built infrastructure and cosmetic claims rather than operational systems. Environmental pollution of this magnitude is unacceptable in any society, more so in an ecologically fragile region. The government must act decisively. Most important is the immediate remediation of the site-stopping open dumping, restoring environmental safeguards and operationalising a truly scientific waste management system.
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