Ghazipur Landfill Fire: As Delhi Residents Battle to Breathe, BJP-AAP Slugfest On over 'negligence'

Despite efforts to extinguish the blaze, the Ghazipur landfill continues to emit dense smoke, causing respiratory issues for nearby residents. As dense smoke engulfed the rea, several residents living close to the landfill complained of throat and respiratory irritation.

New Delhi: Hours after a major fire broke out, Ghazipur landfill continued to emit dense smoke on Monday with efforts underway to douse the blaze. Fire officials reported that the gas generated by the waste pile caused the landfill to experience a major fire on Sunday evening. Several residents living close to the landfill complained of throat and respiratory irritation.

The fire at the landfill has sparked a political row between the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Monday visited the Ghazipur landfill where garbage caught fire a day before and charged it was an example of "corruption" of the AAP government.

Within one year of BJP coming to power in Delhi, this garbage dump will be removed, he claimed. No immediate reaction was available from the Aam Aadmi Party over Sachdeva's allegation. Thick plumes of smoke still rose skywards from the Ghazipur landfill on Monday, hours after a major fire broke out there.

"The Ghazipur garbage dump is a direct example of corruption by the Kejriwal government. They had promised to remove this mountain of garbage by 2023 but another has risen here. This is because of the MCD's corruption. More than half of the machines are non-functional. Why were they not repaired?" Sachdeva said.

"It will be removed within a year after the day BJP forms government in Delhi," he added. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had, ahead of the 2022 MCD election, promised to clear the landfill site by December 31, 2023. All the same, the mountain of garbage continues to grow.

The hazard

In 2019, the height of the Ghazipur landfill was 65 metres, only eight metres less than the Qutub Minar. In 2017, a portion of the garbage at the dumping yard fell on an adjacent road, killing two people. Three incidents of fire were reported at the Ghazipur landfill in 2022, one of which, on March 28, took more than 50 hours to be doused.

According to MCD, the deadline to remove the huge mountain of garbage from the Ghazipur landfill site has been set to 2026. A survey was conducted in the year 2019 regarding the garbage at this site, it was estimated that there were 1.40 lakh metric tons of garbage. After this, the deadline to eliminate this waste was set to 2024.

MCD signed an agreement with a company on November 24, 2022, to process the remaining 80 lakh metric tons of garbage for processing at the Ghazipur site. The company had set a target to process 30 lakh metric tonnes of garbage in 18 months. However the company failed to achieve the target.

At present, there are about 80 lakh metric tons of garbage left at the Ghazipur site, which needs to be removed. For this, MCD has now set a new deadline of 2026. (with agency inputs)

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