The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday gave the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation time till the end of September to clear garbage lying at the Dadumajra dumping ground and other locations across the city.A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor made it clear that the public interest litigation concerning the dumping ground was not being disposed of yet.“The issue is serious,” Justice Rohit Kapoor observed, adding that counsel appearing for the Municipal Corporation should also work with the officials concerned to ensure that the problem was resolved.The observations came during continuing proceedings concerning Dadumajra, with the Bench taking note of improvements at the dumping ground while also noting the continued presence of waste at different locations in Chandigarh.Appearing for the Municipal Corporation, senior advocate Gaurav Mohunta submitted that a substantial quantity of garbage had been cleared from Dadumajra. Trees had also been planted, and the Corporation proposed to cover around 33 per cent of the 45-acre landfill area with plantation.He further submitted that work on the proposed IOCL plant was progressing and other waste-processing plants were already operational.Petitioner-in-person advocate Amit Sharma acknowledged the visible improvement at Dadumajra, including the reduction in the quantity of garbage and plantation at the site. However, he submitted that the clean-up could not by itself establish that Chandigarh had a sustainable waste-processing system in place.Sharma referred to reports raising questions about the viability of the proposed IOCL plant. He also referred to an earlier occasion when the Corporation had represented that a waste-processing plant was being set up and, on that basis, sought disposal of the PIL.Despite repeated follow-ups over nearly a year, he submitted, the Corporation eventually informed the court that the project had been scrapped.The petitioner then drew the Bench’s attention to garbage continuing to be dumped at different locations across Chandigarh. He submitted that photographs showing such instances had already been shared with the authorities.Mohunta said the situation was being monitored and assured the court that the garbage would be cleared within a month.Sharma also referred to the interception of garbage-laden trucks in Punjab, following which an FIR was registered, and to a subsequent instance of another truck carrying waste being found in Chandigarh. Such incidents, he submitted, raised a larger concern that the problem was being shifted from one place to another rather than being addressed through proper processing and disposal.He thereafter placed before the Bench photographs forming part of the report submitted by the court-appointed commissioner, who had inspected the Dadumajra site pursuant to an earlier order of the High Court.Sharma pointed out that the photographs showed garbage continuing to remain in areas adjoining residential habitation at the time of the commissioner’s inspection. He further pointed out that the same areas were subsequently cleared and trees planted, while submitting that the commissioner’s photographs provided an independent record of the condition of the site at the time of inspection.The Bench directed the Municipal Corporation to clear the waste and also sought a timeline for the proposed IOCL plant.