Blaming Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lead Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the frequent fires at landfills across the national Capital, the Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said the BJP-ruled municipal corporations should have used bulldozers to clear the mountains of garbage in Delhi.
On the other hand Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging him to hold a meeting of the stakeholders, including civic agencies, to deal with the problem of air pollution including those caused by fires at garbage dumps in the city. “The increasing cases of fire in landfill sites are the result of increasing corruption in the BJP’s administered MCD. One thing is clear. The BJP in MCD did nothing about the mountains of garbage for 15 years. They indulged in corruption and these fires are a result of it,” said Rai.
“They should have used the bulldozer to clear these mountains of garbage in their 15 years of rule," Rai said.
The minister had on Tuesday night asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to submit a report on the fire at the landfill in north Delhi within 24 hours. On April 21, Rai had said the Delhi government will study a system installed in Mumbai to capture methane from the rotting waste and replicate it in the capital to prevent fires at landfills. Meanwhile, the AAP senior leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said that around 14 fires have been reported this year but BJP seems to take no action.
“The AAP demands an FIR for criminal negligence against the BJP and MCD’s incompetence actively endangering lives of Delhi residents. People living around the landfill are suffocating as the fire still hasn't been put out,” said Pathak.
In his letter to Delhi CM. Tiwari said that this is a matter of life of three crore Delhiites as the pollution level is in a very bad stage and worsening day by day.
Further overaged DTC buses are catching fire almost on a daily basis. The former Delhi BJP chief said,"Let's not just fix the responsibility for the problems associated with landfill sites and fires there but also find a permanent solution to this health hazard".