The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave all states and union territories three months to frame a policy on the disposal of solid waste. Rebuking them for not implementing rules on solid waste management, the court said that India would “go down under the garbage one day”, PTI reported.

The court also said the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi would reach the height of Qutub Minar some day, and “the red beacon will have to be used to ward off the aircraft”. Waste from several parts of the city, including East and North East Delhi, Old Delhi and areas in New Delhi, are dumped at the Ghazipur landfill.

“We keep passing orders but solid waste management rules are not implemented,” the Supreme Court bench said. “What is the use of passing orders when no one is bothered to implement them? India will go down under the garbage one day.”

Amicus curiae Colin Gonsalves suggested that the court ask all local bodies in India to implement rules on solid waste management in three to four months, and be held for contempt if they fail to do so. Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni said that garbage mounds were like a “time bomb”.

The court asked urban development secretaries of Haryana, Jharkhand, Manipur and Meghalaya to inform the bench about the implementation of rules in the next hearing in July.

The hearing was related to a matter from 2015, when the Supreme Court took cognisance of the suicide of the parents of a seven-year-old boy, who died of dengue after allegedly being denied treatment by five private hospitals.