Landfills’ height not reduced by an inch: AAP

Pathak urges L-G to conduct MCD polls; BJP says ruling party playing dirty politics

The height of the landfills in Delhi has not reduced even by an inch, said the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday while attacking erstwhile North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, governed by the BJP, for “spending thousands of crores of rupees in the name of clearing the garbage mounds”. 

AAP legislator Durgesh Pathak appealed to Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to conduct the MCD elections immediately, claiming that only “AAP can bring freedom from BJP’s garbage mountains”. 

“The L-G admitted that right now the city is surrounded by piles of trash because of the BJP’s failures. Today, from whichever side one enters Delhi, you are welcomed by the BJP’s heaps of garbage that are scattered all over the city,” Mr. Pathak said.  

Reacting to Mr. Pathak’s statement, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “It is shameful that the AAP legislator is doing dirty politics against the MCD in the name of garbage piles at the landfill sites when the Delhi government itself has made no effort to clear the garbage.” Mr. Kapoor challenged Mr. Pathak to tell Delhi what financial or technical contribution the Arvind Kejriwal government made to the erstwhile municipal corporations for clearing of landfill sites in last seven years.

Mr. Kapoor said erstwhile municipal corporations tried their best to reduce the landfill sites’ height and it was due to their efforts that the height of the mounds did not increase even by an inch in the last three years. In fact, the height of the garbage piles reduced at both Bhalaswa and Ghazipur sites, he added.

The MCD, meanwhile, said it has managed to reduce the height of the mounds at some locations and is “fully committed to flatten the garbage piles at the three landfill sites in the next two to three years”.

The civic body said 25 lakh tonnes of legacy waste has been processed at the Bhalaswa landfill site, while 10 trommel machines are working at Ghazipur landfill site, processing 4,000 tonnes of waste every day. Till date, 11 lakh tonnes of legacy waste has been processed at Ghazipur, said the MCD. At Okhla landfill site, the MCD said it has managed to reduce the height of some of the mounds by 15 to 30 metres.