The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held BJP responsible for the fire at the Bhalswa landfill site, saying the blaze was triggered “intentionally” to fail the odd-even car rationing scheme.
The BJP retorted and said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is playing politic over fire at Bhalaswa landfill site in an attempt to hide the failure of odd-even scheme.
Mayor Ravinder Gupta said, “landfill fire is a natural phenomenon and it is not only being faced by India but also by developed countries like USA and UK. In USA, around 8300 fire incidents are reported in a year, while UK reports around 280 to 300 incidents in a year. At Bhalaswa landfill site also, fire is a usual occurrence.”
Gupta said the North DMC from time-to-time takes preventive and remedial measures to foil the fire incidents like dressing and leveling of municipal solid waste.
Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain visited the Bhalswa site on Thursday where simmering fire has been reported for over a week now, and said he has instructed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to file an FIR and impose fresh penalties on the MCDs. “From now onward, 15 fire tenders will be deployed round-the-clock at the Bhalswa site,” Hussain tweeted.
Environment minister tweeted, “From now onward, 15 fire tenders will be deployed round-the-clock at the Bhalswa site.”Also, the Delhi Government said it may file FIR against the North and East civic bodies for garbage burning at the Ghazipur and Bhalswa landfill sites amid concerns that the toxic fumes may offset any gains from the odd-even scheme.
East Delhi Municipal Corporation and North Delhi Municipal Corporation had been penalised by the DPCC in February over fire at the landfill sites, which the corporations have refused to pay.
According to environmentalists, the burning of garbage produces methane gas and have adverse impact on the health of people resides near to landfill site.
Kafeel Ahmad, Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, Jamia Milia Islamia, said long time exposure to burning garbage can lead to respiratory diseases because of the heterogeneous nature of garbage. “The land fill sites should be equipped with emission control devices so that the emission level of burning material could be detected,” said Ahmad.
The city produces a staggering 8360 MTD (Metric Tonnes Daily) waste but the existing capacity of its all three landfill sites stands at 4660 MTD, all of which are operating beyond their saturation point, the Economic Survey report by the Delhi government had pointed out.
Bhalswa landfill site was commissioned in 1994, Ghazipur in 1984 and Okhla in 1996 and none of them are designed as per the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000.
The DPCC in its notice to the MCDs, dated February 11, had slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 per day saying burning can occur only if there is an ignition initially provided “deliberately or negligently” by someone.