A spokesperson of the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board said here today that plastic waste has been dumped haphazardly across 70 dump sites in the states. Taking prompt action in this regard, the H.P. State Pollution Control Board has directed the Urban Development (UD) Department and Rural Development (RD) and Panchayati Raj Department to take necessary action for scientific disposal of the plastic waste dumped haphazardly. He said that the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, Rule 15, clearly stipulate the roles and responsibilities of the local authorities and village panchayats regarding scientific disposal of the solid waste produced and remediation of legacy waste sites.
He said that the State Board, in its directions has raised the issue that at present total legacy waste to the tune of 1,90,796 tonnes is lying in ULBs namely Dharamshala, Mandi, Baddi, Solan, Kullu, Manali, Bilaspur, Una, Santokhgarh, Baijnath, Chowari, Dalhousie, Rewalsar, Sarkaghat and Hamirpur. It has observed that the progress of legacy waste remediation work in most of the above-said ULBs is sluggish and lags behind the timeline stipulated in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. He said that UD and RD departments have been thus directed to strictly comply with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 as the status of Solid Waste Management is closely monitored by the National Green Tribunal. The Board has adopted a zero-tolerance policy with regard to waste management by local bodies in the state. The Chairman, HPSPCB is actually monitoring the progress made by the authorities about this.
