India, April 10 -- In February 2023, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) awarded a tender worth Rs.17.7 crore to Aadarsh Bharat Enviro Private Limited, a Pune-based company for processing 200,000 metric tonnes (MT) of legacy waste.

Over the next year, MCG released a series of payments totalling over Rs.15 crore on the promise that the company would treat the legacy waste - comprising refuse-derived fuel, construction and demolition waste, compost and inert materials - before disposing of them in sites approved by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and National Green Tribunal (NGT).

But now, documents, photographs and eyewitness testimonies collected by HT indicate that the company allegedly bypassed scientific processes ...