The fire raging for the last three days at the Deonar dumping ground in Eastern Mumbai and emitting toxic fumes was doused on Monday even as Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that a two-member special team will be sent to investigate the incident, which he termed as “serious”. The civic authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility of the fire being an act of “sabotage”.
“The team will give full report within a week. I have discussed it with Commissioner of Mumbai and will discuss with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as soon as the report is ready,” he said. He alleged that the incident indicates the carelessness on the part of the contractors and those involved in the operation of managing the dumping waste.
Asserting that appropriate advice and direction would be given to the state government in this regard, Javadekar said that the former would be asked to initiate stern action against the violators. “We are issuing a new solid waste management rule in this fortnight. And that will actually give solution for all such waste problems. Decentralized waste collection and utalisation, segregation and its recycling,” he added.
While the ministers and civic authorities in Maharashtra state government alleged, that the incident was an act of sabotage, Javadekar declined to comment on these lines, saying the report of the special team will bring out the details.
Meanwhile, the fire which broke out on in the evening of March 19, was extinguished after much efforts on Monday morning and cooling operations are on at the site. This being the third incident of its kind at the site at Deonar facility, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, expressed concern over their frequency. He did not rule out the possibilities of a sabotage in this regard.
As preventive measures against the recurrence of such incidents, the municipal commissioner declared that the entire area of 132 hectares of the dumping ground would be declared as “prohibited zone”, allowing only restricted and disciplined entry within its premises.
Fences are being constructed around the premises and security beefed up. The number of personnel have gone up from the earlier 102 to 150, which would be deputed in three batches. Further, 10 fire engines would remain stationed at the ground in a standby mode.