'We Don't See Any Improvement': Bombay High Court Pulls Up BMC Over Garbage, Poor Hygiene Across Mumbai

Just because South Bombay and Worli are clean does not mean that the entire city of Mumbai is clean, remarked the Bombay High Court on Wednesday (October 7) while pulling up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for not undertaking effective measures to maintain proper health and hygiene across all the 24 wards in the city. 

A division bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni and Justice Dr Neela Gokhale said that the problem of waste dumping on streets, open spaces has not stopped yet, despite the BMC earlier giving a detailed plan of maintaining proper health and hygiene standards in all the 24 wards. 

The judges pointed out that last week, while both of them were travelling to Uttan, a coastal area in neighbouring Mira-Bhayander city, the judges travelled through the western suburbs of the city and were irked to see that garbage, filth etc. was being dumped on public streets, open spaces, footpaths etc. The judges pointed out that Jogeshwari and Malad were the worst regions in the western suburbs, where the situation was really bad. 

"We aren't against anybody but basic hygiene discipline must be there... If you see this area under Western Express Highway near Jogeshwari, there's a municipal school nearby but in between all this there is a full plastic hill is there... People entering in Mumbai see this... Some barricades need to be put so that slum dwellers don't put their trash there... We were travelling to Uttan the other day, there's a hill full of plastic filth... It will take only a day to clean it properly... Is this Mumbai? Ward hygiene must be maintained..." Justice Kulkarni remarked orally. 

When senior advocate Anil Sakhare attempted to submit that the Supreme Court has passed certain orders, the judges interjected to point out that the apex court has not stopped the present bench from passing any order or monitor the cleanliness in the city. 

"There is no embargo on us for monitoring cleanliness in Mumbai... Supreme Court has not said that we must not pass orders or make observations... Show us any such orders we will stop monitoring this matter... Do not take this adversarial...Dumping of garbage on the streets is purely and purely a local issue... Ensuring all wards are clean is the responsibility of the corporation... We do not see any improvement in the situation..." Justice Kulkarni observed. 

When the bench pointed out that everywhere across the city there was filth and that it had passed orders to ensure that each corner of the city looks clean, Sakhare submitted that the BMC was regularly monitoring cleanliness across the Mumbai. 

Irked, Justice Kulkarni remarked, "Only because Worli, Nariman Point or South Bombay is clean doesn't mean entire Mumbai is clean... We are concerned with the lives of the citizens, their health, their hygiene etc... We don't find much improvement on health standards...We need an affidavit from the corporation spelling out steps taken to maintain health and hygeine in each ward, stop people from dumping garbage on streets, hill slopes, pavements etc... There are these specific wards like the K West, K North, K South and part of Malad... All these ward officers need to be called as there is too much chaos... Jogeshwari is a very serious problem but we need some action and machinery needs to be deployed at certain places... Jogeshwari is a big problem... Ram Mandir station also, we are receiving lot of complaints... So the BMC will have to look into all this... We are looking at Mumbai becoming a city that people will themselves go and throw garbage in the bins... But for that the BMC has to take concrete measures..."

The bench also pointed out that that since it has already widened the scope of the present petition which was initially concerned with the dumping ground facility in Kanjurmarg, now the judges would also monitor the health and hygiene in all the wards of the city and therefore, ordered the BMC to also provide data from KEM and other civic and State-run hospitals about how many patients admitted due to contagious diseases, dengue, malaria, H1 N1 etc.

Further, the bench pointed out that it has been hardly a week that Gandhi Jayanti was celebrated on October 2, which is also the day to observe the Swachhata Abhiyan, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

"On Oct 2, it is Gandhi Jayanti and also it is the beginning of Swachhata Abhiyan, which was announced in 2014 by the Prime Minister... Therefore more effective steps need to be undertaken considering this scheme of the Central Govt... What has the BMC done on this day? We want to know from the civic body... Oct 2 is important from 4 aspects... Gandhi Jayanti, (Lal Bahadur) Shastri Jayanti, Swachhata Abhiyan and also World Peace Day..." Justice Kulkarni observed. 

With these observations, the bench has adjourned the matter for further hearing till October 22.