A new report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has raised serious concerns over the way the debris from the apartment complexes demolished in the Maradu municipality in 2020 has been handled.
The report of the CAG on Waste Management in Urban Local Bodies tabled in the State Assembly on Thursday noted a marked lack of clarity in the removal of 69,906 tonnes of debris from the demolition sites.
Attempts to trace the debris or contact M/s Prompt Enterprises, the land developer entrusted with its removal, had failed, senior officials at the Accountant General’s Office here told a press conference.
The audit also found that places, including grama panchayats, mentioned by the Maradu municipality as the final destination for a major portion of the debris had never given permission for dumping the waste in their jurisdictions.
The apartments, H2O Holy Faith, Alpha Serene Towers, Jain Coral Cove and Golden Kayaloram, were demolished in 2020 through controlled explosion on the basis of a Supreme Court order.
Prompt Enterprises was entrusted with the processing and disposal of the construction and demolition waste, and it “claimed to have removed” 69,606 tonnes of debris from the sites by June 18, 2020, according to the CAG report. The Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016, required the local body to transport the waste to appropriate sites for processing and disposal, either using its own resources or through private operators.
The initial agreement between the municipality and the agency had not specified the locations to where the waste would be transported or the method proposed for its reuse, recycling or disposal. Following a direction from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) monitoring committee, the agency submitted a plan of action indicating 11 sites in Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts, the report said.
“Though Maradu Municipality stated that a major part of the demolition waste (37,441 tonnes) was transported to Kumbalam and Varapuzha grama panchayats and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), Pallippuram, the grama panchayats/KSIDC replied to the audit that they had not given any sanction to the agency for dumping of demolition waste in their jurisdictional area,” it said.
The report further noted that neither the municipality nor the agency had provided records to the audit regarding the quantum of waste removed or the method used for processing and disposal of the massive quantity of construction and demolition waste resulted from the “first major demolition activity undertaken in the State.”
The CAG has said that urban local bodies should place ‘appropriate containers’ for the collection of construction and demolition waste and identify land for establishing processing plants for them within their jurisdictions.
