The National Green Tribunal considered an action taken report regarding bans on construction in Manali and McLeod Ganj. It noted an anomaly where commercial unit approvals were granted in Dharamshala instead of McLeod Ganj, seeking clarification before closing the proceedings.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
Item No. 01
Court No. 1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Original Application No. 635/2017
Ramesh Chand Applicant
Versus
State of Himachal Pradesh & Ors.
Respondent(s)
Date of hearing: 14.12.2020
CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL, CHAIRPERSON HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SHEO KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER HON’BLE DR. SATYAWAN SINGH GARBYAL, EXPERT MEMBER HON’BLE DR. NAGIN NANDA, EXPERT MEMBER
Respondent:
Mr. Manish Kumar, Advocate for State of HP Mr. Divya Prakash Pande, Advocate for HPSPCB
ORDER
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“ In view of the inputs received from the field offices, the report has been prepared which is submitted hereby as follows :-
| Recommendations | Response |
|---|---|
| 1. Enforce a complete ban on construction activities in Manali MC and McLeod Ganj except the construction of residential houses for their own uses/purpose and government buildings. The construction of other types should only be permitted unless and until adequate provisions for solid waste management and water supply are put in place |
Manali MC- The Divisional Town and Country Planning Office, Kullu vide office letter no. DTP (K)-T-57/OAno. 635/2017 dated 20.06.2020, copy of which is hereby annexed as Annexure R – I,after ground verification, has reported that the cases are permitted/ allowed strictly as per clarification given vide letter no. HIM/TP/ LAW-VI/ O.A. no. 635/ 2017-5870 dated 16.09.2019 and no new cases of commercial land use are being allowed/ permitted in MC Manalic o n s e q u e n t u p o n t h e p a s s i n g o f t h e o r d e r d a t e d29.07.2019. The construction activities will not be permitted unless and until adequate provisions for solid waste management and water supply are put in place by the Applicant(s). McLeod Ganj- The Commissioner, Dharamshala Municipal Corporation vide office letter no. DMC/ Sant (F)-1-2/ 2019- 790 dated 15.06.2020, after ground verification has reported that MC, Dharamshala has enforced a complete ban on construction activities in McLeod Ganj. However, approval/ completion to 18 commercial units has been issued by the Dharamshala Municipal Corporation after order dated 29.07.2020 which includes online building plan approval for 2 commercial buildings and offline plan approval for 4 commercial buildings. Simultaneously, online completion for 3 commercial buildings and offline completion for 9 commercial buildings has also been issued to the Applicants after adherence to adequate provisions for solid waste management and water supply of such units. |
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| 2. Environmental Sustainability |
The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board has not provided any fresh consent to establish/ NOC has been issued for the Hotels/ Guest Houses in McLeod Ganj and Manali after passing of the order dated 29.07.2019 by this Ld. Tribunal. The HP State Pollution Control Board shall not issue the consent to operate new construction activities in Manali MC and McLeod Ganj unless and until adequate provisions for solid waste management and water supply are put in place by the Applicants(s) in consonance with the order dated 29.07.2019 passed by this Hon'ble Tribunal. a. Manali 1. The Regional Office of the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board, Kullu has submitted a report dated 11.06.2020 stating that after passing of the order dated 29.07.2020; no fresh consent to establish has been issued by theStatePollution Control Board for Hotels, Restaurant etc. in Manali MC area for which no planning permission has been granted by the TCP/ MC, Manali. 2. The D.G. sets are allowed to be installed only with acoustic enclosure with exhausted mufflers and stack. It is also submitted that all D.G. sets are installed as standby purposes only. 3. The vehicles monitoring is being conducted in collaboration with Indian Oil authorities/ Regional Transport Officer/ Police authorities and other concerned authorities and challan are issued by police authorities when any violation is observed. 4. The river monitoring around and within MC, Manali area is regularly conducted. As per the latest results of river monitoring for May' 2020, the result of the points in and around the MC, Manali are observed in Class-B. The copy of sample results is enclosed asAnnexure R-IIfor kind perusal of this Hon’ble Tribunal. 5. The air monitoring of Manali Town is regularly conducted. The latest results of monitoring for the month of May, 2020 |
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2. 100 percent door to door garbage collection is being done in Dharamshala Municipal Corporation (herein referred as DMC). By laws for door to door garbage collection and Disposal 2019 has also been framed by the MC, Dharamshala, which duly stands notified.
3. 50% of waste generated in MC area is segregated at the source. Rest is being segregated at the waste processing facility.
4. Underground bins: - All over DMC area, bins have been provided in all 17 wards at 133 locations. Each location consists of 2 bins (1St bin has two compartments of 1.5 cum capacity each for non-biodegradable and other waste. 2nd bin of 2 cum capacity for degradable waste.) All these bins are underground and the waste collected in these bins is transferred into tippertrucks with inbuilt crane mechanism. These tipper trucks carry the solid waste of the bins to the solid waste site for further processing.
5. Construction 86 Demolition (C 86 D) Management: - Control and regulation of Muck Dumping) Bye-Laws, 2019 has been framed by Dharamshala Municipal Corporation and have been duly notified vide notification dated 17.02.2020. DMC has identified and notified C & D waste disposal site at Charan Khad (W. no. 10) The compliance of Strategy in Manali 86 Dharamshala area are as below:
| Component of Strategy |
Status of compliance in Manali |
Status of Compliance in Dharamshala |
|---|---|---|
| Door-to-Door Garbage Collection |
100% door to door garbage collection in being done in Manali Municipal Council, Manali |
100% door to door garbage collection is being done in Dharamshala Municipal Corporation area |
| Source segregation | 70% of waste |
50% of waste |
| of waste | generated in MC Manali is |
generated in MC Dharamshala area |
| segregated at |
is segregated at |
|
| source. Rest is being segregated at the waste processing facility |
source. Rest is being segregated at the waste processing facility |
|
| Wet waste |
Waste to Energy |
23 compositing pits |
| processing | plant established at Rangri, Manali where all the waste |
have been constructed by the DMC at six |
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| collected from town having two major section, 1st is Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) making section which has been made functional in the month of Feb, 2020. All the waste received at site is being processed daily and converted into RDF which is further sent to Barmana for co- processing as Energy generation section of the plant is not yet functional. The 2nd section of the plant is energy generation which is presently under |
locations within jurisdiction of MC, which includes Dharamkot Chowk (W no. 2) Lama Temple (W no. 3) near Gamru Ground (W no. 5) Dumping site (w no. 6) Sabji Mandi Charan road (W no. 10) and Norbulingka (w no. 17) |
|
|---|---|---|
| installationphase. | ||
| Dry waste processing |
Material recovery facility (MRF) established. Recyclable sent for recycling and non- recycle processed further for preparing refuse derived fuel (RDF) |
A material recovery facility (MRF) has also been established at Dharamshala processing site where all the non- biodegradable waste is further |
| sorted into |
||
| recyclables. The recyclables are channelized into |
||
| recycling through rag pickers and scrap dealers and non-recyclable is packed and sent to cement plants for co-processing. A balling machine has been installed at MC |
||
| Dharamshala which is used to make bales of segregated combustible fraction (SCF) of waste and sending it to Cement plant for co- processing. |
5. Information has also been given about other aspects. However, there appears to an anomaly in the report. On the one hand it is stated that no building has been approved for McLeod Ganj, on the other hand it is stated that approval to 18 commercial units has been given in Dharamshala. It is not clear whether the buildings for which approvals have been given are in McLeod Ganj or in Dharamshala. Let this aspect be clarified as learned counsel for the State of Himachal Pradesh is unable to explain the anomaly. If the building plans have been approved for McLeod Ganj, the same have to be reviewed as it will be in violation of binding orders of this Tribunal.”
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The application stands disposed of accordingly.
Adarsh Kumar Goel, CP
S.K. Singh, JM
Dr. S.S. Garbyal, EM
Dr. Nagin Nanda, EM
December 14, 2020 Original Application No. 635/2017 SN
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Ramesh Chand
State of Himachal Pradesh
Adarsh Kumar Goel
Sheo Kumar Singh
Satyawan Singh Garbyal
Nagin Nanda
As recorded by the court registry
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