Chandigarh: Contradictory affidavits to the court about the layers of forgotten trash piled high in Dadumajra have exposed wide gaps in how much waste this city produces and processes.Two decades after contracting a private firm to process municipal garbage, the municipal corporation told the Punjab and Haryana high court on Oct 7 that legacy waste at the Dadumajra landfill had been “totally bio-mined”.However, a review of affidavits that the civic body submitted to the high court and the National Green Tribunal over the past decade reveals significant inconsistencies and unexplained figures.In July 2022, the corporation submitted in the high court that Chandigarh generated about 550 tonnes of garbage daily, comprising 200 tonnes of dry waste and 350 tonnes of wet waste.Its latest 2026 affidavit states that 110 tonnes of dry waste and 200 tonnes of wet waste are processed daily, alongside 70 to 80 tonnes of mixed waste directed to a segregation plant. The filing omits total daily generation figures and fails to reconcile the new data with 2022 estimates.Depending on whether mixed waste overlaps with dry and wet waste metrics, a substantial portion of daily garbage remains unaccounted for. Corporation capacity data indicates the wet-waste processing plant operates at less than half capacity, while the dry-waste facility operates at just over half capacity.“Four years on, if the waste has grown, why is it not being processed?“ asked petitioner and advocate Amit Sharma. “And more importantly, where is it going?“Residue Disposal Unaccounted ForDiscrepancies also surround post-processing waste. In 2022, the corporation stated that 15% to 20% of processed waste was sent to the dumping ground. The latest affidavit lists compost and fuel as processing by-products but omits details on where remaining residue is disposed of.Internal mismatches also marked the 2022 records. While that affidavit cited 120 tonnes of wet waste processed daily, attached logs showed a June 2022 daily average of 79 tonnes.Those logs recorded that every 100 tonnes processed yielded 5 tonnes of compost and 44 tonnes of inert material, primarily non-biodegradable residue. The latest filing does not account for where this material currently goes.Discrepancies in Dump CountOfficial accounts of legacy waste volume have also shifted across filings. In 2022, the corporation reported two dumping sites at Dadumajra. The 2026 affidavit lists three sites, introducing a third mound.While the latest submission states the corporation will attempt to clear “mixed waste lying at the dumping ground” by Nov 15, the municipality had assured the high court in Dec 2025 that no freshly generated waste was being deposited on the site.
