Kerala adding to waste load problem while other countries are trying to find solutions: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday raised concerns regarding the amount of waste generated due to the flags, banners and posters displayed by political parties in public places [St. Stephen's Malankara Catholic Church Kattanam Village v State of Kerala]..Justice Devan Ramachandran lamented the fact that powerful entities in Kerala, including political organisations, seemingly add to the waste load in the State, while countries across the world are trying to find new waste management methods."This is incongruous in the modern times, when countries around the world are attempting to find novel solutions to control their waste; but in our State, powerful persons and entities are adding to the load solely for self propagation and self advertisement and they are apparently being able to do so without fear," the Court said in its order..The single-judge also reminded the stakeholders of the dangers posed by such installations not only due to the lack of an efficient disposal mechanism but also due to the risk posed to passers by as the installations can fall on them, especially during unpredictable weather conditions."Times have gone where one could say that we would face a particular climatic condition at a particular time, and we are now at the mercy of the vagaries of nature; which makes it much more important for us to be aware of the deleterious consequences of actions such as placing of Boards and Banners thoughtlessly, without mind to the manner in which it has to be disposed of," the Court said..The Court passed the order in a 2018 plea seeking the removal of unauthorised banners, posters and flags of political parties from public spaces.Recently, the Court had convened a hearing at the request of amicus curiae, advocate Harish Vasudevan, to deal with the litter left on the National Highways and other roads in the wake of the Congress Party's Bharat Jodo Yatra. .Noting that the various suggestions earlier made and ordered by the Court have not borne fruit and the fact that secretaries of municipalities had informed the Court that they are facing political pressure, the Court decided that certain committees must be formed to deal with the issue and report back to the court.The Court, therefore, ordered the secretary to Local Self Government Department to issue immediate orders constituting the following committees:1. Committee at the level of every Local Self Government Institution, comprising: Its Secretary; The Station House Officer of the Police Station/ Police Stations involved;The competent Official of the National Highway Authority of India; andThe competent Engineer of the PWD. 2. District Monitoring Committee comprising: The District Joint Director of the Local Self Government Institution;The Executive Engineer of the PWD;The District Police Chief/Deputy District Police Chief; andThe Project Director/Competent equivalent Authority of the NHAI. "The Local Self Government Institution level committees will survey the territories under it atleast every two weeks and remove all illegal boards, flags, banners and such other, returning it to the persons who placed the same, along with registration of necessary FIRs, not in the name of the entities, but in the name of persons behind it; and make sure that prosecution and such other steps are launched," the order stated..[Read Order]