The Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT), throughout a listening to to evaluate Karnataka’s compliance with the Municipal Strong Waste Administration Guidelines 2016, criticised the state authorities over poor waste administration compliance and gaps in waste administration infrastructure and planning.
Chaired by Justice Prakash Shrivastava, alongside Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Dr A Senthil Vel, the NGT expressed dissatisfaction with the state’s progress.
Karnataka Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh submitted a report dated February 6, 2025, detailing the state’s waste administration standing as of January 2025. Nevertheless, the NGT discovered the state missing a concrete, executable plan to bridge essential gaps in managing each stable and liquid waste, regardless of common reporting over the previous two years.
The NGT’s evaluate, guided by Supreme Courtroom directives, famous that Karnataka’s 316 city native our bodies (ULBs) generate 12,701 tonnes per day (TPD) of stable waste, however solely 10,031 TPD is processed, leaving a spot of two,670 TPD. Inside 315 ULBs (excluding the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), the processing shortfall is 1,402 TPD, with particular gaps of 881 TPD for dry waste, 219 TPD for moist waste, and 302 TPD for building and demolition waste.
The BBMP alone faces a large 3,000 TPD hole in building and demolition waste processing, with waste usually dumped in quarries or landfills. The tribunal criticised the gradual progress in tendering processes to handle an 845 TPD moist waste processing shortfall in Bengaluru.
“Primarily based on present services for administration, there isn’t any expeditious motion in finalising and firming up of DPRs,” the NGT famous.
The NGT additionally said that legacy waste stays a urgent situation, with 67.72 lakh metric tonnes unremediated throughout 192 websites in 315 ULBs. Within the BBMP, 58.89 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste persist at 9 areas, with remediation at Mandur Part 2 projected for completion solely by June 2027.
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The tribunal expressed concern over the chance of groundwater contamination on account of leachable toxicants detected via poisonous traits leaching procedures at dumping websites. It directed the state to watch groundwater high quality and guarantee no recent unprocessed waste provides to present legacy dumps.
The tribunal additionally flagged vital deficiencies in sewage administration. “Throughout 316 ULBs, a spot of two,068.47 million litres per day (MLD) exists between sewage technology and therapy capability. In BBMP, this hole is 603 MLD, whereas 315 ULBs face a shortfall of 1,170.93 MLD,” the NGT famous.
The NGT flagged non-functional sewage therapy crops (STPs) with a mixed capability of 38.51 MLD and underutilised STPs, alongside ambiguous efficiency knowledge. As an illustration, faecal coliform ranges in handled sewage had been reported as “complying” with out specifying relevant requirements. The tribunal directed detailed disclosures on STP efficiency and measures to handle gaps in ULBs like Badami, Bellary, and Mysuru.
The NGT criticised the absence of a centralised mechanism to streamline funding and technical assist for ULBs. It pulled up the state for failing to reveal monetary allocations to ULBs for waste administration and highlighted the dearth of readability on funding timelines and useful resource utilisation to bridge recognized gaps.
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The NGT famous that whereas some ULBs, comparable to Mysuru and Gokak, achieved 100 per cent waste processing, their profitable fashions weren’t replicated elsewhere.
It additionally highlighted the dearth of readability on monetary allocations to ULBs for waste administration, directing the state to offer detailed funding timelines in its subsequent report.