Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court has expressed strong disapproval over people littering in India but adhering to the rules abroad and throwing garbage only in designated places, and questioned whether this was the price one pays for liberty and democracy.
A bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe on Friday called for sensitisation of citizens and municipal officers to ensure there is no garbage lying on public streets and spaces.
“If a person wants a clean environment, then he or she has a corresponding fundamental duty towards society to maintain cleanliness. We want the civic officials to be ruthless in taking action,” the court said.
The court was hearing a bunch of petitions raising concerns about pollution, persistent foul odour, gas emissions and health risks for residents in the vicinity of Kanjurmarg dumping ground in the eastern part of the metropolis.
“We have to sensitise our citizens. Here, a person will throw garbage on the road without batting an eyelid, but these same people, when abroad, will strictly avoid such behaviour. Even a small chocolate wrapper they will throw in the dustbin,” the High Court said.
Is this the price of liberty and democracy? the court remarked.
Referring to large amounts of plastic waste lying in public places, the court said even beaches in the city are flooded with plastic and questioned if “we are living in a civilised society”.
The court noted that the city faces tremendous hazards daily from garbage dumped on the main roads and bylanes, and the serious health and hygiene issues arising from these.
Referring to the ‘Swachch Mumbi, Sundar Mumbai, Aapli Mumbai, Sundar Mumbai’ logo of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the bench said the intention is clear, but the same is being collectively defeated by citizens and by the civic machinery’s inaction.
“It is in these circumstances the role of MCGM’s cleanliness machinery wardwise becomes significant, to take all effective steps so that public streets are not used by the citizens as dumping places,” the court observed.
If effective measures in this regard are not being taken, it would defeat the civic body’s noble intentions as reflected in the logo, it added.
It urged the municipal machinery to strictly implement all the rules to bring about an improvement.
The bench also raised concerns about the handling of garbage by municipal trucks near heritage sites in the city such as the Rajabai Tower, the HC building and so on.
The court noted that a large number of tourists, including foreigners, who visit these sites see garbage lying on the roads due to mishandling of waste by the civic body’s garbage collection trucks.
The court asked the civic body to take appropriate action on this within a week, failing which it would be constrained to pass orders. PTI SP BNM ARU
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
