NEW DELHI: Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Monday ordered an inquiry into the fire incident at Ghazipur and asked Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to submit a report in 24 hours. Despite repeated warnings, the civic bodies have failed to understand their duties, Rai alleged.
“This is not the first such instance of a fire at the landfill. The fire department’s teams have been sent to the spot to take control, but seeing the situation on hand, DPCC has been ordered to investigate the matter. Their report has been sought in 24 hours. Based on the report, strictest action would be taken to deter such instances. In the past too, such instances have pointed towards the carelessness of the corporation,” the minister said.
AAP senior functionary and MLA Atishi claimed that the three huge landfills in the city have been the only gifts to the people of Delhi by BJP in its 15 years of rule in the corporations. “BJP and its leaders repeatedly claim to work on its disposal. But in the Vidhan Sabha, it was revealed that given the current pace of trommeling, it would take a staggering 200 years to eradicate the landfill. The corporations are under the Centre’s control, so the Prime Minister must tell the public how they plan to clear the Delhi’s garbage mountains,” she said.
“The BJP-led corporation’s waste management system is so abysmal that everyday 2,000 tonnes of garbage ends up in these landfills.”
According to a TERI’s report, Delhi’s environment has suffered a loss of Rs 450 crore as a result of air and water pollution due to the three landfills. “The BJP-led east corporation knows that the Ghazipur landfill can catch fire at any moment, and that it is a source of major health hazard for anyone living in its vicinity,” she said.
AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar added that such incidents are not new and happening every other month. “How will the people who live near the landfill survive while being suffocated? The Ghazipur landfill site consumed two lives in a blast in 2017, yet BJP has done nothing to improve the situation,” he claimed.
AAP councillor and leader of the opposition Manoj Tyagi alleged that the incident happened due to negligence of EDMC. “There are 26 trommel machines, 18 loaders, four bulldozers, 22 trucks and other machines engaged at the landfill and the civic body is spending crores of rupees on the task every month. But if such incidents are happening despite all these arrangements, work is not being done properly and corruption is also high. Much higher amounts of waste should have been processed with these equipment till now,” he claimed.
“EDMC leaders are promoting such incidents so that there is no clarity on the amount of waste processed/pending for processing,” said the councillor while demanding a high-level inquiry in the matter.
