Landfill smoke takes the sheen off anti-pollution drive

Fires have erupted at two landfill sites in the city and the smoke emanating from these dumpyards seems to have taken the sheen off the city government’s anti-pollution drive.

The AAP government on Thursday blamed the BJP-ruled MCDs for deliberately sparking the fires to deteriorate the air quality during the odd-even drive.

Environment Minister Imran Hussain blamed the MCD for starting these fires “to spread pollution and fail the city government's odd-even scheme”. The incidents of fire at Bhalswa Landfill site under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation prompted the Environment Minister to visit the dumpyard on Thursday afternoon. Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, Vijender Gupta rubbished the allegations saying nothing can be “more ridiculous than blaming the BJP for a natural phenomenon”.

North Corporation Mayor Ravinder Gupta strongly condemned the Kejriwal government for playing politics over the issue of fire at Bhalaswa landfill site “in an attempt to hide the failures of its odd-even scheme”.

Transport Minister Gopal Rai said the government has formed a four-member committee  to probe the incident of fires at landfill sites.

The committee, headed by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) member secretary Kulanand Joshi, will submit its report in four days, the minister said, while launching a helpline for congested roads. He admitted that there were 32 stress points on main roads.

On the landfill fires, civic engineers said these are a “natural phenomenon” due to the inflammable methane gas rising from the dumps.

“The problem of landfill fire is not only being faced by India but also by developed countries like the US. In the US, around 8,300 fire incidents were reported in a year (source: US Fire Administration 2001) and in the UK around 280 to 300 incidents were reported in a year,” said the North Corporation in a reply to the DPCC.

In February, the DPCC had imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 per day on the North and East Corporation for burning of garbage at Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfill sites.

In all, there are four landfill sites across the city — at Bhalswa, Ghazipur, Okhla and Narela-Bawana.

According to the Delhi government, Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites were not designed as per the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Rules which came into effect in 2000. “The DPCC has not granted authorisation to all three landfill sites," it said quoting the DPCC.

 The North Corporation said that the Bhalswa landfill site was started in 1994.