Walking through sludge, mud and slippery slopes of garbage, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday went on a surprise visit at the Ghazipur landfill site to take the stock of the work and sought ideas from people to help authorities raze the “unseemly mountains of garbage” in the national capital. He also instructed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to begin and expedite work for disposing the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), Construction and Demolition (C&D) and Inert Waste. There are three landfill sites in Delhi that account for 28 MT of waste.
In a sudden detour, which “included plying on his official BMW car, to an Innova car of an official, a Gypsy of the Delhi Police and finally a walk through the sludge on foot to take stock of the work underway to process huge volumes. “The LG inspected the on-mound working of 10 new trommel machines which have been brought in after replacing the outdated machines at the site, after his visit and instructions in May, “ the Raj Niwas said in a statement. These machines are processing 10,000 MTs of garbage every day, it said.
Describing the landfill sites in Delhi as “grave health hazards” and a “national shame”, Saxena on July 1 reached out to the people and sought their ideas that could help efforts by authorities in getting rid of these “unseemly mountains of garbage”.
On May 29, Saxena had visited the “infamous mountain of garbage” and resolved to “get the capital rid of these mounds within a fixed time-frame of 18 months,” the statement said. Reiterating his commitment to the deadline, he expressed hope that all three “mountains of garbage at Ghazipur, Bhalaswa and Okhla, will be totally done away with during the next 16 months”.
“Braving the sludge, mud and slippery slopes of the garbage mound that made it impossible for a vehicle to climb up, the LG walked up to the peaks to take stock of the works in progress, “ the statement said.
He had earlier also instructed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to begin and expedite work for disposing of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), construction and demolition (C&D) waste and inert waste right away. Saxena “expressed satisfaction” with the works underway at all the three landfill sites, wherein 4.3 lakh MT of garbage had been removed in June, and the target for July had been set at 3.6 lakh MT, due to the rains, the statement said.
A plan in this connection has been prepared and the project will soon be implemented, they said, adding that the report of the drone survey will also be sent to the lieutenant governor’s office on a regular basis.