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Raising a stink -Abhinav Rajput & Mallica Joshi

-The Indian Express

Despite framing rules, proposing fines and starting ‘model colonies’, waste segregation in the capital has failed to take off. With mountains of garbage continuing to grow, The Indian Express reports on the challenges before authorities.

The year 2015 was an eye-opener of sorts for Arpit Bhargava. Down with dengue, the lawyer started thinking about the link between waste and diseases. But thoughts gave way to action when he heard about a couple committing suicide in south Delhi’s Lado Sarai, after their seven-year-old son died battling the same disease.

On September 8, 2015, Babita and Laxmichandra Rout, parents of Avinash, jumped from the terrace of their rented home. Babita’s left hand was tied to Laxmichandra’s right, and in the suicide note they wrote: “It is nobody’s fault. It is our decision.”

The case shook Bhargava, now 32, and he filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, demanding action. “In 2017, when Gita Mittal became the Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice, we told her about the case. She intervened and regular hearings started,” he said.

What followed was a series of court hearings where the High Court said that to fix the problem of vector-borne diseases, it was essential to ensure the process of garbage disposal is handled on a war footing. The HC directed formulation of a long-term action plan that finally led to framing of the Solid Waste Management Bye-Laws, 2018, for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. These laws recognise and mandate the role of waste generators — households, vendors, restaurants, hotels and commercial spaces — in segregating waste at the source, so as little waste as possible makes its way to Delhi’s already unsustainable landfill sites.

The hearings on the issue has often witnessed drama, with the Supreme Court on one occasion asking if the L-G thought he was “superman”, and on another, remarking that waste be dumped outside the Raj Niwas or NDMC area instead of dumping it near houses of “underprivileged people”.

On the ground, though, enforcing waste segregation has been anything but easy.

How waste is collected now


Waste generated in households is collected by rag pickers in most colonies. They take out whatever can be sold in scrap markets or reused, and the rest goes to the dhalaos.

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