The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 24) slammed the secretaries of various states for unable to submit action plan on the solid waste management. The top court also said the states don’t bother about Swach Bharat campaign and their “callous approach” towards solid waste management will hamper targets which have been set to be achieved by 2019 as part of the campaign.

The bench was hearing a PIL related to deaths due to dengue in New Delhi and in other states.

During the course of the proceedings, the bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the secretaries of various states as what steps they had taken on the solid waste management. The bench further said that the states were not serious towards the implementation of the directions given by it.

Counsel for Manipur state could not able to satisfy with the actions it had taken on solid waste management.

The bench slammed the state and said: “Garbage in Manipur will affect the people of Manipur and not us.”

Similarly the bench also asked the states of Jharkhand, Nagaland and Assam as what steps they had taken on the solid waste management. But couldn’t get satisfactory replies.

The matter was listed for next hearing to July 10, 2018.

—India Legal Bureau