City may not meet SC’s deadline

MUMBAI: Additional municipal commissioner Subrato Ratho on Thursday admitted that the city is not likely to meet the December 31, 2003 deadline set by the apex court for cities to upgrade waste processing and disposal facilities.
However, Mr Ratho said the BMC was hammering out a master plan for garbage management.
Already, the city has missed the 2001 deadline for upgrading existing landfills.There are four dumping grounds in the city, but only two are in use now— Deonar and Mulund.
Both of these are also fast filling up and also causing local pollution problems as Mumbai continues to produce a whopping 7,000 metric tonnes of garbage every day. What happens when the city misses the SC deadline?
The apex court won’t be chasing every municipal corporation, but according to Ms Patel, the BMC will be open to contempt of court proceedings.