Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Ghazipur landfill on Friday and expressed displeasure at the progress in clearing the garbage mound.
The Chief Minister said only 5.25 lakh tonnes of waste had been cleared from the site, against the target of 15 lakh tonnes announced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after it came to power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in January this year.
The BJP reacted sharply to the CM’s statements, accusing him of trying to evade responsibility for clearing the garbage mounds.
The Chief Minister said, “Over the past few days, I have been to the landfill sites in Bhalswa and Okhla. Today, I’m visiting Ghazipur, which has around 80 lakh tonnes of garbage. The pace at which waste is being removed from this site is significantly slow.”
Mr. Kejriwal said he has suggested that the MCD hire two more agencies to clear the landfill whenever the Standing Committee is constituted. Currently, three agencies are working on the site.
“The process of hiring two more agencies is getting delayed due to the non-formation of the Standing Committee due to a case pending in the Supreme Court. Once the court’s order is received, the committee will be constituted,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
A three-judge Supreme Court Bench has reserved a petition filed by AAP on the constitution of the 18-member Standing Committee.
The panel has various executive powers, which include granting financial approvals to projects and conducting discussions related to policies.
Progress at Bhalswa
Mr. Kejriwal said the work to clear the Bhalswa landfill site is being done ahead of schedule.
However, the municipality may need to rope in another contractor as a total of 70 lakh tonnes of waste has to be processed.
Earlier this week, Mr. Kejriwal had said that his government “is on track” to free the city of the three landfills.
He said 12 lakh tonnes of garbage had been processed at the Okhla landfill since AAP took over the MCD, compared to the target of 18 lakh tonnes.
Making the city cleaner was one of the guarantees AAP had given to the residents ahead of the civic body elections last year, which the party had won by a comfortable margin.
Short of Qutub Minar
As of November 2022, Ghazipur landfill, the tallest of the three garbage mounds in the city, was found to be just eight metres short of the iconic Qutub Minar, which is 73 metres tall.
The MCD has earlier claimed to have taken a slew of measures to reduce the height of the landfills — deploying trommel machines, offering construction and demolition waste free of cost, selling refuse-driven fuel, working with residents for the segregation of waste at the source, and discouraging the use of single-use plastic.
