Chandigarh, Jan. 7 -- Chandigarh's long-running battle with the legacy waste at Dadumajra landfill shows no sign of ending. Even as the municipal corporation has claimed success in clearing two massive waste mountains accumulated over past two decades, each following prolonged delays, the third heap has also missed three deadlines and has now been assigned a fourth - January 21. During a review meeting held recently, the municipal corporation has assured UT chief secretary H Rajesh Prasad that the unprocessed waste at the dumpsite will be cleared by January 21. The meeting was chaired by the chief secretary and also had officers of the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) in attendance. In September last year, during a National Green Tribunal (NGT) hearing, officials from the UT administration and MC had assured the tribunal that the November 30 deadline would be met. However, 55,000 MT (metric tonnes) of legacy waste remains unprocessed, highlighting the persistent gap between commitments and implementation. Chandigarh has long struggled with inadequate waste processing infrastructure, leading to the creation of three waste mountains over the past two decades. The first mountain, comprising 5 lakh MT, was fully cleared by December 2022. The second mountain, of 8 lakh MT, was originally slated for clearance by July 2023. The deadline was extended five times - to December 2023, March 2024, June 2024, October 2024 and then to December 2024. The target was finally achieved in February 2025. While the second mountain was being remediated, a third heap of 2.4 lakh MT emerged due to continuous dumping of unsegregated and unprocessed daily waste. Its deadline was first July 2025, then September 2025 and later November 2025. The dumpsite remains one of Chandigarh's most pressing environmental concerns, with the NGT regularly monitoring its status and directing authorities to accelerate waste clearance due to the health and ecological risks faced by nearby residents....