BMC defends Deonar dump

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is in no mood to shift the dumping ground from Deonar. In an affidavit filed in the Bombay high court, municipal commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya has defended the location of the dumping ground, which falls within a 10km vicinity of the international airport. 

The affidavit has been filed in reply to a PIL filed by a city-based lawyer. The PIL seeks issuance of directives to the civic body to cancel the licences given to slaughter houses and also to shift the dumping ground beyond the 10km limit of the airport in order to prevent incidents of bird hits. 

The affidavit states that under section 61(h) of Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1988, it is the obligatory duty of BMC to construct and maintain public markets and slaughter houses to regulate the same. As per the affidavit, the Deonar dumping ground was constructed in 1971-72 after closing down the century-old slaughter houses situated at Bandra, Kurla and other parts of city.   

“Deonar dumping ground is one of the oldest sites of BMC and it has been used for disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) since 1927. On account of disposal of huge quantity of MSW, there are environment-related issues such as foul odour and landfill fire etc. The influx of garbage at disposal site is covered with earth material on daily basis. In order to overcome the foul odour nuisance, a herbal-based insect repallent is regularly sprayed on the disposed MSW,” states the affidavit.