We are not garbage collectors, SC tells Centre

The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Centre for filing an 845-page affidavit containing incomplete information about solid waste management across the country and said the apex court is not a "garbage collector".

The top court declined to take the affidavit on record and said the government cannot dump "junk" before it.

"What are you trying to do? Are you trying to impress us? We are not impressed. You are trying to dump everything on us. We are not going to accept it," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

"Don't do



this. Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. We are not garbage collectors. Be absolutely clear about this," the bench said.

The bench directed the Centre to file a chart within three weeks indicating whether the states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

It also directed the government to state in its chart the date the advisory boards were constituted in the states and UTs, names of members of the boards and also details of any meetings conducted by them.